


Observances

by bitboozy



Series: Domesticated [50]
Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Gen, Halloween, Post-Series, Romance, Therapy, really pleased to have found an excuse to say "Alec gets his groove back"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:02:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27164245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitboozy/pseuds/bitboozy
Summary: Alec gets his groove back just in time for his forty-ninth birthday - and Halloween.EDIT: Halloween bonus chapter added!
Relationships: Alec Hardy & Ellie Miller, Alec Hardy/Ellie Miller
Series: Domesticated [50]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550554
Comments: 118
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I spent some time wrestling with what to do for the FIFTIETH (!!) part of this series. I thought I might do something big, I even thought maybe fifty was a sign that I should end it, the perfect number upon which to end it. But somehow it seemed that the best thing to do would be to just honor the essence of the series -- a lovely little bit of domesticity. So here's another largely plotless meditation on family life. Hope it isn't a disappointment. 
> 
> In other news, WOW, fifty, thank you for reading this far, good lord. I value you all immensely.

“Pardon me, Chief Inspector.”

Ellie raps on his open office door twice then leans against the frame. He glances up over a mountain of paperwork.

Thwarting a smile, he nods politely in her direction. “Detective Inspector. Do come in.”

She steps in, turning to close the door behind her with a grin. He meets her halfway between the door and his desk, easily slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her in.

“Your first birthday gift has arrived.” She slides her arms up around his neck.

He raises an eyebrow. “Has it then.”

She nods, then presses herself tightly against him and kisses him deeply. She moves her hand from the back of his neck up into his hair and lightly yanks at it as his hand travels down to her arse. Then she grins into his lips breathlessly.

“…Was that it?”

She tries to elbow him but he restrains her, grinning back.

“Not my birthday yet,” he maintains, still holding her close.

“I’ve got all sorts of surprises planned,” Ellie tells him, massaging the back of his neck.

He groans, his grin devolving into a pout. “Tell me you haven’t.”

“You’ve had a very big year,” she insists. “Promotion. Wedding. Christ, we’ve had a whole _baby_ since your last birthday. Quite a lot to celebrate if you ask me.”

“Already celebrated all those things.”

She sighs heavily, leaning her forehead on his chest. He rubs her back, just instinctively.

“God’s sake, will you just let me celebrate you,” she moans into his jacket.

He smiles, despite himself, and kisses her hair. “You keep celebratin’ me like _this_ , I just might.”

When she looks up at him she’s smiling again. He can’t resist kissing her. Then she pats his chest and starts pull back a bit.

“I’m stopping by the new Thai place on my way back from court,” she says. “Fred’s been begging for that Himmapan chicken he likes.”

“Right. I’ll make a salad to go with it.”

“Yeah good, just what everyone wants.” She pulls away with a smirk and heads for the door again. “Text me your order. Something real please, with protein.”

“Uh huh.” He shoves his now idle hands into his pockets.

“And don’t forget to pick the baby up from Lucy’s at 5:30,” Ellie reminds him from the doorway. “And Fred from football at 6. Molly’s off today, remember.”

He shrugs casually. “I set an alert on my mobile.” He pulls it out of his pocket and reads from the screen. “ _Baby at 5:30. Fred at 6._ See?”

“We lead truly thrilling lives.”

He nods seriously as he pockets his mobile again. “Yeah, _I_ think so.”

She smiles. “See you later.”

*

Alec has never been so excited for a doctor’s appointment in his life. He even honks the car horn to hurry Ellie along.

The medical office is bustling at 11am on a Saturday morning. They’re running late. Alec taps his foot impatiently in the waiting room while Ellie entertains the baby on her lap. Aila keeps trying to crawl onto her father’s lap instead.

“No, no, little bug, Daddy’s far too anxious,” Ellie says with a smirk, loosely restraining Aila’s flailing limbs.

When they’re finally called into the exam room, Dr. Hart makes them wait another ten minutes. This gives Alec time to develop several conspiracy theories about why all doctors hate him and don’t want him to be happy.

When Dr. Hart finally appears, he is distracted by the adorable baby on Ellie’s hip. In his defense, she _is_ wearing an orange onesie designed to make her look like a jack-o-lantern.

“Barely the length of my arm last time I saw this one, I think,” he notes, squeezing a baby foot.

“Mamamamamama,” Aila says, as if to impress him.

“Doctor, can we – you know.” Alec gestures impatiently at his ankle, resting on the edge of the exam table.

“Yes, yes, all right.” Dr. Hart carefully unwraps Alec’s ankle and begins to examine it. The patient watches him anxiously. “Looks like it’s healed quite well. No more bruising, no discoloration. Have you tried putting any weight on it?”

“Here and there,” Alec replies. “But mostly waiting for your go ahead.”

“Right, stand up for me.”

Alec stands, shifting his weight back and forth.

“A- _da_ -da,” Aila says, happily pointing at him.

“Any pain?”

“No.”

“Tenderness?”

“No.”

“Soreness?”

“God’s sake, no.”

“ _Alec_ ,” Ellie scolds him.

“Ack,” Aila mimics. Ellie smooches her cheek in response.

“Give us a walk ‘round the room,” Dr. Hart directs him calmly, unperturbed by his patient’s crankiness.

With a heavy sigh, Alec walks around the room. Aila watches curiously.

“All looks good to me,” he determines. “Feel good to you?”

“Right as rain,” Alec assures him.

“Good then.” Dr. Hart picks up his clipboard to make some notes. “All clear to resume normal activity then.”

Alec’s shoulder noticeably relax. “Oh, thank christ.”

Aila leans forward and holds her arms out to her father. Alec gladly accepts her advance, happy to finally be holding his baby and standing at the same time, his first opportunity to do so in seven weeks. Aila immediately starts bouncing triumphantly.

“My, you’ve really got yourselves a precious one, haven’t you,” Dr. Hart comments.

Aila is beaming and slapping Alec’s chest.

“We _have,_ thank you,” Ellie answers politely, quite delighted that he has noticed.

“And certainly no question of her parentage,” Dr. Hart adds with a chuckle in Ellie’s direction.

“I know,” she agrees avidly. “Uncanny, isn’t it?”

Meanwhile, Alec is clearing his throat and shifting around a bit awkwardly. “And, um. What of the, um – the other thing.”

Dr. Hart blinks at him, then looks back down at his clipboard. “Oh. Yes. We can send your specimen down to the lab today, maybe even get a result by this afternoon, possibly tomorrow.”

“…Which lab tech do I need to slip a hundred quid to to get it today?” Alec questions, far too seriously.

“Careful now, your wife’s a copper,” Ellie reminds him wryly.

Dr. Hart smiles and shakes his head. “They’ll give you a small container at the nurses’ station. There’s a quiet single occupancy restroom down the hall you can use.”

Alec stiffens. Somehow the realization that he’d have to masturbate into a cup in a public washroom hadn’t occurred to him until this moment. Ellie watches the awareness wash over him and bites her lip to keep from laughing.

At the nurses’ station, several RNs fawn over Aila as one of those goes to retrieve the supply Alec requires. Rose, a former classmate of Ellie’s, hands him a small container with a lid, labeled with his name and birthdate.

He turns to Ellie conspiratorially. “Could you maybe, um. Go in with me.”

Ellie looks at him wide-eyed and laughs. “Into the loo?”

“Just to um – “ He groans a bit.

“I’ve got the baby,” she replies, now understanding his meaning.

Rose is smirking at them. “You’d better go, El. We find things typically go a lot quicker when the wife goes in,” she says. “We’ll mind the baby.”

Ellie looks at Alec a bit uncertainly and in return receives a pleading expression she knows quite well. She nods at him and he hands over Aila to Rose.

“Right, then,” she says with an exhale.

Aila furrows her brows and stares at her parents dubiously from this stranger’s arms.

“Only be a few minutes, darlin’,” Alec tells her.

Ellie reaches into her bag and pulls out a pacifier. She pops it into Aila’s mouth and she is appeased.

In the restroom at the far end of the hallway, Alec locks the door behind them. Then they stand facing each other, specimen container in Alec’s hand.

“Well?” Ellie says. “What d’you want from me?” She places her hands on her hips.

“Um.” He looks around uselessly.

“Drop your trousers,” she says, gesturing at him. “Come on, quickly now.”

“Do I…” He looks around again. “I should sit. I mean. I have to, um – “ He holds out his hands, container in one, the other empty. “Only have two hands.”

Ellie rolls her eyes. “God’s sake, sit in that chair there, you can sanitize it after.”

He frowns. “This is awful.”

“Much worse when you’re doing a fertility test, I imagine,” she reminds him. “We already _have_ a baby, we’ve got far less at stake.”

“Right.”

He briefly flashes upon what it might’ve been like if they _had_ been in that position. Is there a world in which they might have gotten to a place where they wanted a baby and struggled to have one? A world of sperm tests and IVF and…petri dishes. It returns him to a question he’s often had, needlessly, but nonetheless: If they hadn’t accidentally gotten pregnant, would they ever have _tried_ for a baby?

He shakes it out of his head. Not a useful thought at the moment. He says a quick and silent thank you for their brilliant baby and then moves on.

Divesting himself of what restrains him, he sits in a plastic chair. Ellie stands against the wall opposite him.

“…So.” Her hands hang limply at her sides.

“…Can people hear us?” He asks.

“Not with the fan on I shouldn’t think,” she replies. “What should I do?”

“Um. Can you. Dunno. Take your jumper off.”

She pulls her jumper over her head then hesitates before dropping it on the floor. She makes a cringey face then shrugs.

“Now what.” She's standing there in her bra and jeans. 

“…It’s not s’posed to be _too_ sexy, right, like I’m not s’posed to enjoy myself, yeah?”

“Uh.” Ellie shrugs a bit. “Does it matter? No one will know.”

“Right.” He takes himself in hand. “…Um.”

She takes a take a step toward him. “Do you want _me_ to – “

“No,” he says quickly, and she halts. “Too indulgent. Then it’s just like we’re shaggin’ at the doctor’s office.”

She moves back against the wall. “Fine.”

“Can you, um. Put your hand in your bra.”

A bit like a put out, surly teenager, she sticks her hand into her bra and cups her own breast. “All right.”

“Oh that’s good,” he breathes out. He stares at her intently as he strokes himself to full hardness.

“How ‘bout, um.” She unbuttons and unzips the fly of her jeans.

“Mm-hm.”

She slides her other hand into her knickers. “Eh?”

“Yeah,” he pants. “But don’t – don’t move.”

“Well I’m not going to bloody get _myself_ off in here,” Ellie retorts.

“And don’t speak,” he instructs her.

She glares at him. Leaning back against the wall, one hand in her bra and the other in her knickers, Ellie struggles with where to look. It seems odd both to watch him and to look away.

“Look at me,” he says suddenly, deciding for her. “Watch me.”

She does. “Can you be quite quick?”

He groans and it’s unclear whether it’s in protest to her impatience or in pleasure. In truth, she’s finding it increasingly difficult to watch him touch himself without touching _herself_.

“D’you want me to say something naughty?” She asks, thinking of ways to speed things along.

“Yeah.” He’s really worked himself up now.

“Right, um.”

She bites her lip trying to think of something. But it turns out that alone is enough to get him close.

“Ellie, I can’t – “

She frees her hands, frowning. “What?”

“How do you --- hold the thing steady and still --- “

“Christ’s sake,” she sighs. “You just do.”

Now thoroughly impatient, she walks straight over to him and picks up the cup. She brushes his hand away from his cock and takes over. He sits back in the chair, arms hanging at either side, grunting and writhing a bit until she gets him off into the cup then quickly lets go of him and screws on the cap.

“There.”

"Jesus, El." He's frowning a bit at her abruptness and efficiency.

She sets the container down and goes to wash her hands while Alec recovers.

“Thought you weren’t s’posed to enjoy that too much,” she quips at him with a smirk.

“Ah, shut up.”

He cleans himself up and they redress themselves in silence. Ellie finds herself suppressing with great difficulty the need to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. As they head for the door, Alec stops her.

“You don’t think anybody heard.”

She blinks at him. “This from the man who has fucked me in multiple public loos.”

“Where no one knows us. Where we’re more or less anonymous,” he argues.

“No one heard us, Alec. Heard _you_.” She opens the door. “Besides it isn’t like they didn’t _know_ what you were doing in here.”

His eyes widen with horror. “…Didn’t think about that.”

*

Shortly after Alec’s appointment, Ellie is called into work. Katie and Donald have discovered a new lead in the burglary case they’ve been investigating for two weeks, necessitating Ellie’s supervision.

In a delightful turn of events, Alec is for once _not_ needed and instead gets to take the little ones to the park. It’s a perfect fall day in October, perhaps one of the last before the cold well and truly sets in for the winter. Fred runs about with his mates, shouting and shrieking. Alec spends most of their time there trying to keep Aila from eating mulch.

When Beth shows up with Lizzie, he is literally scraping mulch off his daughter’s tongue.

“Reckon Lizzie would _still_ eat mulch if she wasn’t threatened with no dessert,” Beth says, announcing her presence.

With a sheepish chuckle, Alec picks Aila up and sits down on the bench with her. “She doesn’t know what to make of it,” he explains. “She can’t eat it, she can’t play with it, it sticks to her hands when she crawls…”

“Wait ‘til she starts walking,” Beth tells him. “And falling face first into it.”

“A terrible invention.”

She smiles, then scans the playground. “El around?”

“At work,” he replies, retrieving a bottle from Aila’s bag and giving it a shake.

Aila can now hold the bottle all by herself. She leans back against Alec contentedly, her eyes darting around as she watches the kids play. Beth sits on the bench beside them, grinning as Lizzie finds Fred.

“Little birdie tells me someone’s got a birthday coming up.”

Alec raises an eyebrow. “Does this little birdie also have an unnatural affinity for scotch eggs and kitkats?”

“Is it the big one?” She asks.

He winces. “No thank christ. The one before.”

“Forty-nine, good lord,” Beth exclaims.

He frowns at her and waves her off. “Keep your voice down, will you.”

“Not sure you’d still be able to _hear_ me, Granddad.”

Alec scowls at her.

“Good to see you off the crutches at least.”

“A two hour old development,” he replies. “S’posed to be playin’ football with Fred but then Ellie got called in.”

“Geriatric football?”

Aila yanks the half-consumed bottle out of her mouth and looks up at her father. “A-da-da.”

He glances down. “Yes, lass.”

She grins, satisfied, then puts the bottle back in her mouth.

“Likes to check in,” Alec says, in response to Beth’s amused expression. “Keep me from gettin’ grumbly.”

“Boy she really is a tiny baby Ellie.”

He sighs. “More and more each day.”

*

On their way back home, Fred convinces Alec to let them stop for 99s. One of the last appropriate days for it, he reasons. With Aila in her buggy, they sit by the seawall with their 99s. Alec’s is mostly to share with Aila.

It brings him inordinate pleasure to sit with his children on his and Ellie’s bench. To watch Fred’s little legs swing back and forth as he licks at his ice cream cone. Alec alternates licking his own cone with offering it to Aila, who – having not quite mastered the strategic art of licking – just closes her mouth around it and then makes a squinty face at the cold.

“Daddy,” Fred says, staring out at the sea.

“Yeah, mate.”

“I made a decision about Halloween.”

Aila dives nose-first into the cone held out to her.

“Yeah, about your costume?” He wipes the ice cream off the baby’s nose.

“Gonna be Wonder Woman.”

“Right, so – “ He pauses briefly. “Sorry?”

“I wanna be Wonder Woman!”

“Oh. Well.” He blinks.

Fred finally turns to look up at him, crunching the last of his cone. “It’s okay to be Wonder Woman, right?”

“Well….” He thinks about it, then shrugs. “Yeah, I s’pose.”

“I texted Daisy on Mumma’s iPad and she says boys can be girls and girls can be boys if they wanna.”

Alec nods. “That’s right.” He bites into his cone, which Aila cannot eat. “Do you, um. D’you… _want_ to be a girl, mate?”

“Not for real life!” Fred insists. “Just for Halloween! I wanna wear the gold lightning belt. Gold’s my favourite favourite colour.”

Alec exhales. “I thought blue was your favourite color.”

Fred grimaces. “ _Not anymore,_ Daddy.”

“Right, ‘course.”

“So I can be Wonder Woman?”

Alec pulls the boy against him and kisses the top of his head. “Don’t see why not.”

Then Fred grins, looking at his sister, who is covered in ice cream. “Ailie can be a duck.”

Aila’s face lights up. “DUCK!”

*

When Ellie finally makes it back home again, she finds Alec in the kitchen fixing supper. Fred sits at the kitchen table, colouring with great concentration, while Aila sits in her highchair with a few plastic toys, mostly banging them against the tray or chewing on them.

“Hello!” She calls to them from down the hall. “Smells delicious,” she says to them upon entering.

Aila bounces at the sight of her. “Mumumum.”

“Mumma, I drawed a knight!” Fred announces, holding up a piece of paper.

“Drew,” Ellie replies, leaning forward to look at it properly. “Very nice, love.”

She swoops in behind Alec at the stove and swipes a finger into a simmering pan of white sauce.

“Oi,” he complains. “Gotta stop doin’ that.”

“Mushroom?” She asks, analyzing what’s on her tongue.

“Stroganoff in the makin’,” he replies.

“God, I love you more than my _life_ ,” Ellie says happily, grabbing onto his arm and kissing his cheek.

“Mm.” He focuses intently on stirring the sauce. “Any luck with the new lead?”

“Mm- _hmm_.” She stands at his side and circles her arms around his waist. “I got to handcuff him and everything. Suspect Katie and Donald’ll have a confession out of him by morning.” She places her chin on his chest and looks up at him. “Did you have a lovely afternoon?”

He looks down at her and can’t resist giving her a quick kiss. “Ran into Beth at the playground. Got ninety-nines.”

“Ailie was so sticky!” Fred offers enthusiastically, hoping to rat his sister out.

Ellie looks over at the baby, who is trying to get as much of a soft plastic block in her mouth as she can. “Sounds about right. Has she eaten? Felt my milk come in the minute I stepped in this kitchen.”

Alec shakes her head. “No, have at her.”

Ellie extricates Aila from her highchair then sits down at the table to nurse her. “Tom’s out late tonight, did you see his text?”

“Hasn’t been home for supper in weeks, feels like,” Alec replies.

She sighs sadly. “Lost his domestic ally I’m afraid. Without Daiz he’s properly on his own here, generation-wise.”

Fred has been frowning listening to this. “Tom has me.”

Ellie smiles and reaches across the table to pat his hand. “Course he does, love.”

“We’re _brothers_.”

“Just a bit different, sweetheart,” she says. “Tom and Daiz went to the same school, were much closer in age.”

“But we’re _brothers_ ,” Fred insists. “Tom has no other brother.”

Alec looks over his shoulder at Fred and smiles surreptitiously. “Right you are, mate.”

“We’ll require him for supper tomorrow then,” Ellie determines.

Fred has lost his train of thought and is now staring at Ellie dubiously.

“Fred,” she says, blinking at him.

“Is Ailie gonna nurse forever?” He asks.

Ellie furrows her brow. “Is she --- “ She looks at Alec. He makes a _good luck_ face and turns back to the cooker. “ _You_ were still nursing at this age, little love. She’s only small still.”

Fred turns back to his colouring and picks up a blue crayon. “It’s not fair.”

“What’s not fair?”

He looks up again and appears to have confused _himself_. Then he sighs dramatically – a sigh almost identical to Alec’s – and says, “Nothing.”

Then Alec’s mobile begins to vibrate from the middle of the table. Ellie reaches for it, then holds it out to him. “Better answer.”

He wipes his hands on a tea towel then grabs the mobile.

“Hardy,” he says. “Yeah. Ah, right. Fine. Yeah, thanks a lot. Right.”

He hangs up. Ellie is looking at him expectantly. Then a grin spreads across his face that is so endearing that she can’t help but instantly grin back.

“Sperm-free, baby,” he announces.

She raises one arm in a fist bump. “ _Yes_!” Aila is slightly dislodged and looks at her mother grumpily. “Sorry, bug.” Ellie guides her back to the nipple.

“What’s sperm-free,” Fred asks without looking up.

Ellie now looks at _Alec_ with a _good luck_ face.

“It means there’s no sperm,” Alec replies matter-of-factly, as if that will effectively clear things up.

“What’s sperm,” Fred then asks predictably.

Ellie smirks at her husband. “Nice try though.”

Alec sighs. “It’s, um. It’s something that men have that, um, makes a baby.”

Fred looks up. “So if you’re sperm-free does it mean you can’t make a baby?”

“That’s right.”

Fred grins then looks in Aila’s direction and cackles loudly. “Haha!” He exclaims maniacally. “No more of you!!!!!”

Aila tips her head back to look at her brother upside down.

“No more babies!”

*

Immediately after they put Fred to bed, Alec is slamming Ellie up against their bedroom wall. She holds his face in her hands as he kisses her roughly and insistently.

“Mm, know what this means, don’t you,” she says breathlessly.

He grunts and simply kisses her in response.

“If I die you can have no heirs with my successor.”

He jerks his head back a bit to grimace at her. “Dislike everythin’ about that sentence.”

“End of the Hardy lineage,” she adds.

He squints at her. “Think four is enough to secure the family legacy, don’t you.” He slowly slides his hand up from her waist to the side of her breast. “Not like I’m a bloody Plantagenet.”

Ellie grins. “Like how you said that sexily somehow.”

“ _Plantagenet_ ,” he repeats against her lips.

She slides her foot up and down his leg. “Yeah baby.”

“Gonna shag you so hard.” He presses her more firmly against the wall.

She grabs his arse with both hands. “No crutch, no sperm, no problem.”

“It’s _you_ who won’t be able to walk after this.”

Ellie feels her knees start to buckle beneath her. “Go on then, birthday boy. Nail me to the wall.”

***


	2. Chapter 2

It feels like the nicest thing in the whole world to wake up naked in his almost criminally comfortable queen-sized bed with his equally naked wife. Alec stretches out languidly with a contented yawn then rolls into Ellie, quick to start kissing her bare shoulder.

“Mm,” she murmurs, leaning back into his touch. “Good morning.”

She’s so soft and warm he could simply melt into her and be happy. Instead he settles for sucking on her earlobe as his hand wanders over her breasts and stomach.

“Last night was good, hm?” She tries to look at him over her shoulder with a smile.

It’s rare for them to analyze the previous evening’s sexual activity. They make love so frequently that it never seems worth lingering on what’s past. But the last month and half had been difficult for them. And now, finally, they feel freed from it all.

“Bloody brilliant,” he mumbles into her neck.

She finds his hand and curls her fingers into his. “All of a sudden you’ve got the libido of a nineteen-year-old. I could hardly keep up.”

“Seven weeks of crutches and pent up energy will do that to a man,” Alec says, then bites into her shoulder. “Besides, I did what you asked, didn’t I?”

She can _feel_ him smiling slyly into her skin.

“Oh, yes,” she replies. “You nailed me right into the wall.”

“Mm-hmm.” He grinds up against her.

“And into the bed. And into the floor at least once as I recall.”

“Twice.”

She grins when she feels him good and hard against her. “And there you are again.”

“Can’t help it.” He licks at her collarbone. “Still smell like sex.”

“I _told_ you we should have showered after.” She nudges her elbow gently into his ribcage.

“Salty.” He brushes her hair out of the way and kisses the back of her neck. “And sweet.” He cups a breast in his hand and massages it. “Should’ve had some bloody forethought and gotten a hotel for the weekend.”

Ellie scoffs, but she’s grinning. “You’re unbelievable.”

“Should’ve known I’d want to shag you all weekend long once I got the go ahead.”

“Well.” She grinds back into him, driving his cock crazy. “It _is_ nearly your birthday…”

He raises his head to look at her. “Did you get us a hotel?!”

She looks back at him incredulously. “ _No_ , I didn’t think you’d want to be away from your tiny junior partner on your big day.”

He sighs and lays his head back on his pillow. “Do love that wee rascal.”

“She makes you so happy,” Ellie says. “Stops you from being so grumpy.”

“ _You_ do that too, you know.” His hand resumes its exploration of her body.

“Yeah, but she’s cuter.”

He frowns, bowing his head into her neck. “No more speakin’ of the baby with my cock leakin’ at your back.”

Ellie snorts. “You’re disgusting.”

He bites into her earlobe again. “I know,” he whispers. “How d’you want it?”

Usually when they have morning sex it’s exactly like this, on their sides, him fucking her lazily from behind. But this time she guides him on top of her and, in the same moment, yawns and rubs her eyes.

Alec chuckles. “ _Could_ just let you go back to sleep.”

His cock is already teasing her entrance. She raises an eyebrow. “No you couldn’t.”

He leans down to kiss her. “No I couldn’t.” He kisses her again. “You’re terribly beautiful first thing in the mornin’.”

A bright smile spreads across her face. “Oh, terribly, is it.”

One hand grips her thigh as he effortlessly slides inside her.

“ _Mm_ ,” Ellie murmurs, quite adorably, biting her bottom lip.

He kisses her cheek, her jaw, her neck as he slowly starts to move inside her. “Terribly, terribly beautiful.”

She grabs fistfuls of his arse with both hands and pulls him in deeper, causing him to gasp and grunt at the same time. He thrusts into her move intently now, his face buried in her neck.

“My gorgeous wife,” he exhales into her skin.

Ellie grins, lifting her hips and moving with him. She fingers run through his hair lovingly. “My soppy husband.”

He grunts in response. Then he spends quite a bit of time sucking at her pulse point in rhythm with his thrusts until she’s all sighs and digging nails.

He’s murmuring _thank god_ into her skin, has done it she has no idea how many times before she finally notices. She opens her eyes.

“Thank god what.”

Alec sinks his teeth into her shoulder before responding, “Thank god I never have to shag anyone else in my life.”

Every part of her is warm and tingly. But what she _says_ is, “May not feel the same when we’re seventy.”

He pushes even deeper inside her, causing her to cry out. “I bloody well _will_.”

And that’s the end of the talking until a not-so-mysterious shuffling is just _barely_ heard from the baby monitor on Ellie’s nightstand. They’re able to ignore it quite effectively until it escalates into a _Bopbopbopbopbop_.

Alec pauses, raising his head to look at her with a grimace.

“I know,” she says sadly.

She reaches for the monitor and holds the screen where they can both see it. Aila is standing up, with some difficulty due to her sleep sack, holding onto the bars of the crib and bouncing. _Yayayayayaya_.

“Bollocks,” Alec groans.

Ellie hides the monitor under a pillow. “We can try…”

Though mostly unconvinced, he tentatively starts moving inside her again with a plaintive groan.

But then: “A- _da_ -da! _Da_ -da, _da-_ da.”

Ellie bangs her head back against her pillow. “Your wee princess is calling for you.”

He moans unhappily into her chest. She pulls out the monitor again. Aila is slobbering all over the railing of the crib.

“Properly awake, she is,” Ellie says.

“’s like she _knows_ ,” he growls into her neck.

“Yes she’s clearly aware that Daddy is very busy trying to shag Mummy.”

“ _Tryin’ to_?” Alec complains.

“Mamamamamamamamamma,” Aila says.

Ellie kisses his ear. “Go get her. It was fun while it lasted.”

*

“My birthday is _always_ on a Monday.”

Ellie rolls her eyes at him. “Not possible.”

“It is, every year.”

Fred shoves a huge bite of buttery waffle in his mouth immediately before speaking. “Daddy, how old will you be?!”

Ellie shoots him a soft glare. “Manners.”

He sheepishly swallows his bite.

“Too old,” Alec replies.

“As old as Granddad?”

As Alec’s eyes widen with horror, Ellie bursts into massive laughter. She claps her hands together gleefully. Aila, from Alec’s lap, mimics her and claps her hands together once as well.

“Whole ruddy family’s against me,” Alec grumbles. Aila looks up at him with a smile and claps again. He sighs. “Yes, I know, well done.”

Ellie is _still_ laughing when Tom comes trudging into the kitchen in his pyjamas.

“Morning, lovely,” she greets him. “Have a good night?”

“Yeah, was all right.” He heads straight for the coffee pot. “Til I got home.” He pours himself a cup of coffee then stares daggers at his parents.

Ellie frowns in confusion and consternation until she registers the mortified expression on Alec’s face.

“Oh. Bollocks. What time did you – “ Just like Fred, she sheepishly shoves a giant piece of waffle into her mouth. “Sorry, love.”

“What? What happened when you got home?” Fred questions eagerly, bouncing a bit in his chair. Aila bounces too.

Tom ignores him. “The sound machine and the earphones are well and good for once I’m in my room but I’ve got to bloody _get_ there first.”

“What happened!” Fred demands.

“Sorry, mate, you’re right,” Alec replies. “Off the crutches now so last night, was – “

Tom holds a hand up. “Don’t need details.”

“We did turn _our_ sound machine on,” Ellie adds in their defense.

“Oh,” Fred exhales with disappointment, catching on after a bit of mental gymnastics. “Were you doing sex too loud?”

“We’re _sorry_ , love,” Ellie says earnestly to Tom as he brings a plate around to the table.

“It’s fine,” he mumbles back.

Aila lurches forward, outstretched fingers reaching for what’s on Ellie’s plate. Her father’s plate only has fruit and toast. Ellie breaks off a tiny piece of waffle and puts it in her mouth. She nods happily and leans back against Alec again as she chews.

“Turnin’ into a wee sugar fiend like your mother,” Alec says to her.

“Mumum.” She stretches out her hand again toward Ellie’s plate.

Ellie sighs and gives her another bite.

“Are we gonna have a party?” Fred asks, returning to the subject of Alec’s birthday.

“Daddy doesn’t like parties, love,” Ellie reminds him.

“But I do.”

“It’s not your birthday.”

He takes another bite. “Will there be cake?”

“Daddy doesn’t like cake.”

Fred then turns to his father with a deep frown on his face. “Daddy doesn’t like _anything_ fun!”

“Mumum,” Aila says again, leaning forward for more of Ellie’s waffle.

“We can have cake, lad,” Alec says finally.

“Not carrot cake,” Fred insists sternly. He’s been burned before.

“Not carrot cake,” Alec agrees.

Ellie reaches over and squeezes Alec’s knee, offering him a smile. Then she turns back to Fred. “Tomorrow is about your dad. I want you to remember that. You’ll have a birthday of your own soon enough.”

Fred takes a sip of his orange juice then exhales. “Okay Mumma.”

*

In the afternoon, Tom is off to the cinema with his new mates (and, his parents suspect, possible new girlfriend) and Fred has a playdate with Ryan. Ellie starts the laundry while Alec is dropping Fred off, then she runs upstairs to put on some lipstick and a bit of mascara. She quickly runs a comb through her hair, which now reaches her shoulders again. Then she removes her trousers and heads back downstairs.

At the dining room bar, she pours two glasses of scotch over an ice cube then goes to the living room when she hears Alec’s car pull into the drive.

Alec takes off his shoes when he enters and removes his overcoat, dripping with droplets of rain.

“El?” He calls out.

“In here!”

He stops short upon entering the living room. There she stands, clad in only her jumper and knickers, holding out two glasses of scotch.

“ _Oh_.”

She regards him coyly. “Bit of pre-birthday afternoon delight?” She holds out one glass to him. “Finish what we started this morning?”

He takes a few steps toward her and accepts the glass of scotch. “You planned this?”

She nods with a devilish little grin. “Baby’s asleep and everything. Nursed her for a good twenty minutes beforehand so she ought to be down awhile.”

“Afternoon _scotch_ even,” he notes with pleasure before taking a sip.

“When it’s your birthday you get to have all the things you love,” she tells him, taking a sip of hers. “All the things you want.”

He puts his glass down and takes hers as well. “You may make a believer out of me yet.”

There’s no question that Alec once thought he’d never be so lucky as to have an amazing wife who strips down to her knickers in the middle of their living room and hands him a glass of scotch. It’s something he never knew he always wanted. And badly.

He pulls her roughly into his arms, eliciting a little yelp from her followed by a flushed grin, and god is there anything he finds more attractive in this _world_ than her little flushed grins?

He holds her close and starts walking her backwards toward the sofa.

“ _You’re_ all the things I love.”

Ellie throws a blanket down on the sofa. _We’ll throw it in the wash after_. She’s so practical, it turns him on immensely. He has her jumper off within seconds, then they work together to discard his trousers and briefs. Her knickers come off as he buries his face in her breasts and he’s inside her so quickly that she is breathless. Nearly forty-nine years old and never a second’s trouble getting hard – she thinks about saying this but doesn’t. He rocks into her at a steady rhythm, their foreheads together, his hands gripping her thighs. When he kisses her it’s messy and desperate, needy and grateful. He slips a hand into her bra and groans hungrily. He buries his face in her neck and _imagines_ her breasts as he kneads one. He’s so close already. Thrusting into her rapidly now, he begins to unravel, losing control.

“El, what do you – “

“’s okay, baby,” she whispers, pressing her fingertips into the taut muscles of his back. “Go on."

He hates that, he hates to come without her, but he’s too close to stop it and too overwhelmed to rectify the situation.

She doesn’t let him hesitate. “Come for me, birthday boy.”

He lets out something between a desperate grunt and a short laugh before slamming hard into her and coming with a loud gasp. He keeps moving inside her until he can’t anymore then he lies boneless on top of her, panting. She rubs his back and kisses his hair, humming happily.

“Need to take care of you now,” he insists.

“Love, I’m fine,” she replies serenely. And she really is.

But he shakes his head and moves back onto his knees.

“ _I’m_ not fine ‘til you’re taken care of.”

There’s something unimaginably sexy to Ellie about her husband going down on her in the middle of their living room. Doors locked, curtains drawn, kids elsewhere. She knows it’ll giving her a little thrill later when they’re all gathered together watching a film and eating popcorn.

His skill is that he’s efficient when he needs to be and gloriously languid when he doesn’t. He can spend an hour down there. Or he can make her come in minutes. She finds this endlessly impressive. With a sleeping baby upstairs, the best option is clearly efficiency. She loves the feel of his head between her legs, loves to yank at his hair and massage his scalp. There’s something so gloriously intimate about holding him there, though of course he does not need to be held. He knows precisely what he’s doing, needs no guidance. He sucks her off until she’s very nearly screaming into the sofa cushions. Then he lays his head between her thighs as she recovers.

“Thank you,” he says quietly.

Ellie laughs, propping herself up on her elbows. “Thank _me_?”

“For bein’ in your knickers when I walked in the door.”

She laughs again and pulls him back up to her. “I know you hate birthdays,” she says, settling him between her breasts and stroking his hair. “But we love you too much to let you ignore them. We love birthdays, and we love you even more. I promise if you let us celebrate you you’ll be glad.”

“Might be already,” he admits.

“Your junior partner has a milestone coming up, by the way.”

She can feel him frowning into her skin. “Don’t wanna talk about that. Need her to stop growin’ so fast.”

Ellie lets out a sigh. “She’s still a baby for a good while yet, don’t you worry.”

“My baby.” He’s pouting, he _must_ be.

She snorts. “ _Our_ baby.”

“Right.”

“Are you happy?” She asks. “D’you think you can stomach another day of being celebrated?”

“Uh. If it’s anythin’ like this – “ He chuckles. “I can manage it, yeah.”

*

That evening, Alec reads Fred a story before bed. The boy, in his Star Wars pyjamas, lays back against Alec’s chest and snuggles into him until the story’s over. When Alec closes the book, he looks down at him.

“Daddy,” Fred says, staring blankly ahead with wide eyes. “When you get too old will you die?”

Alec recoils a bit then blinks at him. “Too old for what?”

“Just like when you get really old.”

“What’s ‘really old’?”

“I dunno.” Fred shrugs. “Are you really old now? Will you be really old on your birthday tomorrow?”

Alec grunts incredulously. “Granddad is old. But even he’s not _really_ old.”

“Who’s really old?”

“…Dumbledore maybe.”

Fred frowns. “Dumbledore _died_.”

Oops. Alec had forgotten that Fred has made it past that book. “….Right, yeah. Well, so he was really old before he died.”

Fred thinks about this for a moment. “Is Mumma older than you?”

“No, Mumma is four years younger.”

“So will you die before Mumma?”

“Christ, I hope so,” Alec exhales.

But Fred is just staring at him.

“Dunno, lad. Not everyone dies of old age. There are accidents and illnesses…” He’d rather not go into detail.

“How did _your_ daddy die?” Fred asks.

“He, um. Well, heart failure, actually,” Alec replies. “But he made it to a ripe old age.”

Fred pats Alec’s chest. “Don’t you have a fake heart?”

Grateful for the brief chuckle, Alec answers, “Not a _fake_ heart. I’ve a pacemaker. A little machine that helps my heart work better.”

“If the pacemaker runs out of battery will you die?”

Alec shifts them a bit, sitting up more sturdily against the headboard. “What’s all this, mate?”

“Charlie’s daddy died on his birthday.”

“On Charlie’s birthday?”

“No, Charlie’s daddy died on Charlie’s daddy’s birthday,” Fred clarifies.

“…You worried I’m gonna die tomorrow?”

“No.” Fred tries to look stoic but it’s clear that he _is_.

“Not gonna die tomorrow, Fred. Not gonna die for a good long time,” Alec tells him. “Your mum too.”

“Okay.” Fred snuggles further into him. “Will you stay ‘til I fall asleep.”

Alec kisses the top of his head and switches off the bedside lamp. “Course, mate.”

*

Ellie is in the dining room when he returns downstairs. She sits at the table with her laptop open, a cup of tea beside it.

“Took a while,” she observes without looking away from the screen.

“Lad’s afraid I’ll die on my birthday.”

Despite herself, Ellie laughs out loud. Then frowns. “Sorry. _What’s_ that now?”

He pulls out the chair beside hers and sits. He takes a sip from her mug then sets it back down. “Got some nonsense into his head is all. Think I set him right.”

“Poor little munchkin.” She turns back to her laptop.

Alec pats her leg until she shifts and places her foot in his lap. He massages it as he watches her. “What’re you doin’.”

“Catching up on some email. Rather deal with some of it now than be saddled with it all on your birthday.” She briefly turns to wink at him.

He sighs and leans back in his chair. “You goin’ to share any of your plans with me?”

“No,” she replies simply. “But I think you’ll be pleased. Making up for last year a bit as well. I was too stressed and pregnant to do much for you then.”

He nods. “You were _quite_ pregnant.”

She smirks at him. “You miss it.”

“I do a bit.” He presses his thumb into the arch of her foot. “You were rather adorable with your little penguin waddle.”

Ellie raises an eyebrow at him. “Bit rude.”

“’m glad we got to do that.”

“What?” She laughs. “Have a baby?”

“Have that shared experience,” he clarifies.

“Don’t recall _you_ being the one with the baby pressing down on your bladder day in and out,” Ellie retorts.

“You know what I’m sayin’.”

She smiles at him briefly then turns back to her laptop. “Let me finish these and we can watch some telly.”

*

By the time she’s through, she finds him asleep on the sofa with a John Le Carre novel open on his lap. One he’s read before. She watches him a bit wistfully for a few moments before quietly collecting his empty tea mug and bringing it into the kitchen along with hers. She hears the front door open and close as she gets herself a glass of water.

She’s leaning back against the counter expectantly when Tom walks in. “You were meant to be home for supper.”

Tom looks startled. “Shit. Right. Sorry, Mum.” He goes to the cupboard where the snacks are kept.

“Leftover enchiladas in the fridge.”

He nods enthusiastically and goes after those instead.

“Your brother misses you.”

He glances at her with confusion as he shovels some enchiladas onto a plate. “…Sorry.”

“Have you got a new girlfriend?” Ellie asks. “New job we’re not aware of?”

“No. Well, sort of.” He places the plate in the microwave. “I mean there’s a girl I’ve been seeing a bit. Chelsea. Not serious or anything. Mostly been at Sean’s playing D&D.”

“ _Oh_.” She folded her arms across her chest and tilts her head with interest. “The, um. Mystical dragons and things.”

“…It’s like a roleplaying game. But also a board game. It’s cool. But it can take ages,” Tom explains.

Ellie shifts her weight from one side to the other, eyeing him suspiciously. “So we needn’t worry that you're spending so much time away from home then.”

“What?” He frowns. “No. I’m good.”

“It’s not because Daisy gone?”

The microwave beeps.

“Well. Like There’s not so much for me to do here, you know?”

She raises an eyebrow. “At your own home.”

“You and Alec have your stuff. And then the littles ones are…like their own thing, you know, not much for me to do with them right now.”

“I think Fred would disagree,” she counters.

Tom nods thoughtfully and pulls his plate out of the microwave. “Yeah, all right, fine. I hear you, yeah?”

“Good. We miss you too, you know. Alec and I do.”

“I’ll check in more.” He rips a paper towel off the roll. “Gonna go eat upstairs. Still got a bunch of schoolwork.”

“All right then.”

He takes his plate then kisses her on the cheek. “Night, Mum.”

She watches him go. “Night, lovely.”

*

At 11pm, Ellie finds herself quite restless. She’s left Alec asleep on the sofa, reasoning that he must need it. She gathers another load of laundry and puts it in the wash. She finishes all the dishes from supper. She scours the fridge for expired items and tosses them in the bin. Then she pours herself half a glass of wine as a nightcap and picks up her mobile.

After firing off responses to her father, Lucy, and her school chum Annie, she texts Daisy.

**Don’t forget Dad’s birthday tomorrow. Xx**

She receives a response almost immediately: **Go to bed.** **Xx**

At midnight, Ellie wanders back into the living room. Alec is still passed out, his head tipped back, mouth slightly open. With a mischievous grin, she pads over to him and sits on her knees on the sofa. She removes the book from his lap and then carefully removes his glasses.

At 12:02, she slips her hand underneath his jumper to rub his abdomen, then kisses his cheek softly, repeatedly. He stirs ever so slightly, leaning into her hand.

“Happy birthday, babe,” she whispers in his ear. Then she kisses it before sucking lightly on his lobe. When he doesn’t respond, she whisper-sings to him quietly. “ _Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, Detective Hardy…_ ” His eyelids flutter open. She kisses his cheek. “ _Happy birthday to you_.”

He groans a bit, more due to the disturbance to his sleep than the proclamation of his birthday.

“It’s 12:02,” she says. “The moment you were born. Forty-nine years ago this minute."

“Mm.” He turns into her, craving the warmth of her body, and yawns. “…'m on the sofa?” He murmurs.

“Mm-hmm, fell asleep with your book.” She strokes his bearded cheek with the back of her hand. “Come on upstairs.”

He groans in protest, turning his face into her chest.

“I know, love,” Ellie commiserates gently. Then one hand wanders down to the fly of his trousers. She begins to rub him lightly. “Come up to bed and I’ll give you a nice birthday present to put you right back to sleep.”

He raises his hips unconsciously into her hand.

“Mm-hmm,” she murmurs back. “Come on now. Lovely little birthday blowjob ought to do the trick, eh.”

He groans at the words. She presses her lips briefly to his.

“My sweet birthday boy.”

He holds her hand to his crotch. “Yes, please,” he mumbles mid-yawn.

“Not here,” she chuckles. “Upstairs.”

With great effort, she guides his lethargic body upstairs, stroking him the whole way to keep him going.

“Am I old?” He asks sleepily as they approach their bedroom.

She unzips his fly. “Not according to _this_.”

***


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Evidently I'm dealing with my election anxiety by writing. Perhaps you, if you're in the US, are dealing with yours by reading. Godspeed to us all.

In the morning, Alec wakes with a yawn and a deeply satisfying stretch. It takes him a moment register what it was that woke him in the first place.

A baby slapping his ribcage enthusiastically.

“A- _da_ -da,” she repeats over and over.

He turns onto his side with a smile. Predictably, he finds that Ellie lying beside him, head propped up in her hand.

“Happy birthday,” she says serenely.

Aila flings herself at his face and he catches her just before they knock heads. He sees that she’s wearing a mint green onesie that reads **Daddy’s Wee Lass**. And Ellie is grinning at him.

“Had to have it custom made,” she tells him. “ _Daddy’s Little Girl_ wouldn’t quite cut it.”

He snuggles Aila against him. Though naturally squirmy, she lets herself be held, as long as she can keep yanking at his t-shirt.

“An _incredible_ gift,” Alec says, leaning forward to kiss her.

“Much more where that came from. Just you wait.”

“ _Ellie_.” He sighs. “Racked up quite a list of gifts already. Let’s see…a snog in my office, a shag on the sofa, a ‘birthday blowjob’ as you call it, and a festively dressed baby girl.”

“Most of those were _intangible_ ,” she tells him.

He raises an eyebrow at her. “I would say they were _very_ tangible, thank you _very_ much.”

“Babababababa,” Aila says, calm and content, into his chest.

Ellie reaches out to stroke the baby’s hair. “I love the way she loves you. That’s _my_ gift, I think.”

“’s only ‘cause she’s a mini you,” Alec insists. “She loves what you love.”

Aila turns and reaches a hand out, grabbing Ellie’s nose. “Mumum.”

“She’s a very happy baby to start her day with us this way,” Ellie says with a snort. A snort which causes Aila to startle and then laugh.

“Should start _every_ day this way.” He tickles Aila’s feet, then starts kissing her all over. “Look at these chubby wee legs, my god.” Aila giggles, trying to grab at his beard as he smooches her.

Ellie joins in, each of them kissing a cheek. Aila squeals infectiously.

Alec laughs. “May as well be _her_ birthday, I think.”

*

Tom has made breakfast. A full English. Ellie can’t resist kissing his temple and squeezing his arm, enthusiastically remarking on how proud she is. He merely grumbles in return.

“Don’t think I’ve had a full English since our honeymoon,” Alec says upon seating himself at the table. Aila insists upon sitting on his lap.

“We’ve got to get her a proper highchair now,” Ellie says before biting into a sausage.

Alec frowns. “She’s got a proper highchair.”

“No, that one’s for small babies. That’s why she doesn’t like it anymore.” She smirks as Aila sticks her finger into the yoke of Alec’s egg. “She’s a _big_ baby now, needs a new one. And a new car seat. And possibly a new buggy but we may be able to wait on that.”

Fred is impossibly bored of this conversation. “What kind of cake will there be tonight?”

“Not a big baby,” Alec replies with a pout. “Just a baby.”

Aila looks up at him and grins while he wipes the yoke off her fingers.

“You’ll have to wait and see on the cake,” Ellie says to Fred. “And remember it’s your dad’s birthday, not yours.”

“I _know_.” Fred sighs heavily. “I’m just _asking_.”

“I still have your car today, right?” Tom looks at his mother.

She nods. “If you bring your brother to school.”

“Fine.”

“And pick him up.”

Tom sighs. “Fine.”

“Good then.”

Ellie is then so distracted by the preciousness of Aila helping herself to her father’s breakfast that she manages to spill coffee onto her blouse.

“Bollocks.”

Alec raises an eyebrow at her. “Really, El?”

“Shut up.”

She stands, unbuttoning her blouse, and steps out in the garden where several clean blouses hang on the clothesline.

“ _I_ didn’t spill,” Fred is saying proudly when she returns.

Aila immediately locks her gaze onto Ellie’s chest as she switches from one blouse to the other. Laser vision.

“Mum, do you _have to_?” Tom complains.

“Don’t look then,” she retorts.

Aila’s arms outstretch in her mother’s direction, fingers flexing greedily at the sight of her breasts.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.”

Alec is chuckling. Once she’s got her new blouse half on, she grabs Aila and sits back down with her, unhooking her bra so she can nurse.

“You’re a _tease_ ,” Alec remarks with a smirk. “Even your daughter can’t resist.”

Tom groans into his coffee.

“What’s a tease?” Fred asks.

“Someone who looks as good as your mother but doesn’t let me touch her.”

Ellie blinks at him. “That is a _terrible_ definition, bad grammar aside.”

Aila breaks away from Ellie’s nipple to say _Mumum_ appreciatively, then returns to it immediately.

“I think she just _graded_ you, El,” Alec laughs.

Ellie stabs a sausage with her fork. “You’re all impossible.”

*

They walk into the station hand in hand.

He prefers it when their workday begins this way. An obvious partnership for all to see, an unequivocal bond between them. Her hand in his gives him confidence and fills him with pride. And, of course, her touch keeps him relaxed. It’s precisely how all days should begin.

They reach her office first. He gives her a quick peck, like he’s dropping her off, then continues down the hallway to his office.

Ellie pops back out of her office the minute he walks away. All of their colleagues glance over at her. She raises a finger to her lips, signaling quiet, then they turn to watch him. And to listen.

His office is filled, wall to wall, with balloons. He opens the door and one immediately pops out at him.

“Oi!”

Ellie grins, listening intently.

“Bloody hell, good christ.” He possibly mutters another thing or two under his breath. And then: “ELLIE!”

*

At lunch, she takes him up to the cliffs. It’s a chilly October day and there’s no one else in sight.

He holds her. Her arms circle his waist inside his jacket.

“Sorry about the balloons.”

“No you’re not.”

Her smile is wide and bright and nearly infectious. “I know.”

“A wicked woman.”

“But now you’re here and you don’t have to deal with a single human being for sixty minutes,” she tells him, quite pleased with herself.

“Except you.”

“I can go…”

He holds her where she is. “No.”

She snogs him until he isn’t grumpy anymore.

*

“Don’t like birthdays. But I love my wife.”

Marjorie is staring at him skeptically, pen poised to paper.

“ _She_ likes birthdays.”

“Ah,” she says.

“She wants to ‘celebrate me.’”

“And why shouldn’t she?”

Alec frowns at her as if the answer is obvious.

“Well, don’t you like to celebrate _her_ on _her_ birthday?” Marjorie questions.

“That’s different.”

“How is it different?”

“…Because she’s magic,” Alec tells her simply, but without meeting her eyes.

Marjorie nods. “And what are you?”

He shrugs. “A lucky man, I s’pose.”

“Clearly Ellie considers herself a lucky woman or she wouldn’t be so keen to celebrate you.”

Alec crosses one leg over the other then folds his hands together in his lap. Marjorie observes him with a knowing smile.

“It seems to me,” she begins. “That in letting her celebrate you, you’d be giving _her_ a gift.”

“Hm.” He tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. Then he looks at her. “You’re getting good at this, Doc.”

“Only took me thirty years,” she replies with a chuckle. “In all seriousness, Alec, I want us to take a closer look at your – let’s call it your worldview, over the next few sessions. Do you want to hear briefly what I’ve noticed?”

Alec clears his throat and shifts uncomfortably. “Do I have a choice.”

“Of course you do.”

“Yeah, all right, fine.” He shrugs and feigns nonchalance.

Marjorie straightens and then leans forward. “You’re forty-nine years old. And my understanding is that you’ve not truly found happiness until about two years ago. Would you agree?”

He scratches his beard thoughtfully. “Yeah. I s’pose. I mean, I’ve had periods of…contentment. Moments of happiness, scattered. But. Yeah, consistent happiness, a steadiness…only recently.”

She nods. “And you would attribute this to…Ellie?”

“Yeah.”

“So let’s say age forty-six, forty-seven, everything changes.”

“Okay.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

“Right.” Marjorie bites the cap of her pen, leaning forward further. “What’s interesting to me is that it’s possible, very possible, for someone to fall in love _without_ everything changing. To fall in love but still struggle with everything else. So why do you think it is that being with Ellie sort of…cleared everything else up, so to speak?”

“Uh.” He shifts again, propping one leg up on the other. “Dunno. I mean, Ellie’s quite…pervasive, her energy is quite pervasive.”

“What else did you gain when you fell in love with Ellie?” Marjorie asks, and it’s clear she knows the answer.

“…A family.”

“That’s right, a family. You of course have always had Daisy but I wonder if even Daisy would agree what she had was not necessarily a _family_ either.”

He nods slowly. “Yeah, reckon she might.”

“So you’ve gained a partner and a family, at home. And at work?”

“Well, same thing, really. Had Ellie as a partner at work already.”

“But you’ve said things improved at work, actually, once you and Ellie were properly together,” she observes.

“Well.” He grunts a bit. “Easier to be at work once Ellie and I were together. It was much harder to, you know. To be in love with her but have to hide it.”

“Easier to have everything out in the open.”

“Yeah.”

“You could be more yourself at work. And at home. And, consequently, in the world. Yes?”

Alec blinks, trying to stay with her, alongside her. “Yes.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility.”

“…What d’you mean?”

“For Ellie.”

Alec frowns. “What’re you, _her_ therapist now?”

“No, now listen.” She’s looking at him intently. “Ellie is responsible for changing your life, which a massive, massive thing. And I’m certain you’ve made her life immeasurably better as well, but she already had the things she gave you, before she met you. And you and Ellie are _both_ givers, I believe, just naturally. And neither one of you receives quite so easily. Does that sound right?”

He scratches his head, then nods. “Yeah, right.”

“Ellie believes she carries the whole of your happiness on her shoulders.”

He folds his arms across his chest and shakes his head. “She’d never say that.”

“But do you think it might be true?”

“I don’t know.” He says it clearly, for both of them to hear.

“That’s a lot of pressure,” Marjorie says.

“’s why I don’t like holidays and birthdays. The pressure, the expectations,” Alec adds.

“Right.” She runs a hand across her face and pauses a moment, looking down at her notebook. “We can continue digging into how that impacts your worldview next session. But for now, I’d like you to focus on allowing yourself to receive. To take that pressure off Ellie and in doing so, off yourself. Relax. Enjoy your birthday. Enjoy allowing the people you love to celebrate you. And not grudgingly – openly. Feel the _gratitude_ that comes with it. You describe yourself as a happy man now, for the first time in your life. _Be_ a happy man.”

Alec bites the inside of his cheek. He is astonished to feel a few tears pricking at him. He nods solemnly, looking down at his lap.

“OK.”

*

When he returns to CID, Ellie is holding a casual meeting in the bullpen outside her office with three or four of her subordinate detectives. She sits on the edge of what used to be her desk. Her back is to him as he strides in. As she briefs them, gesturing with her hands the way she sometimes does, he walks up behind her and kisses her cheek.

“Oh,” she yelps a bit.

He simply offers her a half-smile in return, then continues on to his office.

Her cheeks are blushing as she continues her briefing.

*

“Everyone’ll be over for supper,” Ellie tells him, turning the steering wheel as she makes a left turn.

He turns to watch the sea outside the passenger window. “Everyone who?”

“Dad and Lucy. Maggie and Jocelyn. Beth and Lizzie, probably Peter as well.”

He looks at her with a skeptical eyebrow raised. “For _supper_?”

“All right it’s a bit of a do,” she confesses. “Dad may be bringing Sally. Possible we’ll meet Tom’s new girlfriend. I invited Jenny and Hal but I’m not sure they’ll come.”

He continues to look at her. “A _bit_ of a do?”

She crinkles up her nose at him. “More presents that way.”

He smiles and reaches for her hand, then turns back to look out the window. Broadchurch seems lovelier than usual today.

*

Ellie’s car is in the drive when they pull in, which means Tom is home with Fred. Molly’s car is gone so Tom must have relieved her of Aila. What a prince.

Ellie seems to be buzzing a bit as they ascend the porch steps. He knows her well enough to be _very_ suspicious of what’s to come.

“Bloody well better not be more balloons,” he grumbles to her.

She simply grins back. Widely. Too widely. He shudders.

When they walk into the door, Ellie takes her coat off in the foyer and then takes his coat. “Hello!” She calls out, just as she does every evening.

Alec hears a bit of shuffling in the living room and goes toward it. Ellie follows, simultaneously grinning and biting her thumbnail.

There, in the living room, are all four of his children.

All _four_.

Daisy sits on the sofa surrounded by her siblings.

“Happy birthday, Dad.”

***


	4. Chapter 4

“Happy birthday, Dad.”

He breaks into a wide smile, then glances back at Ellie, who is grinning at him. Clearly she is behind this, the best of all birthday gifts.

It’s been a month since he’s seen his eldest daughter in the flesh. He feels his heart leap out of his chest, it reaches her before the rest of him does. Then he hugs her so tightly she’s nearly gasping for breath.

“Dad.”

His hold on her eases, but he keeps his hands on her arms. “Sorry, darlin’,” he exhales. “…Here you are then.”

Fred bounces on the sofa. “Daisy took a train here all by herself!” He exclaims. “Tom and me picked her up at the station in Mumma’s car.”

“Tom and I,” Ellie interjects from the doorway. He’s pushing seven now. Time to crack down.

“She can only stay ‘til tomorrow though,” he continues, ignoring his mother.

Alec refuses to let Daisy’s abbreviated length of stay spoil his happiness. “’s quite all right. We’re very lucky she’s here at all, aren’t we?”

“Yep.” Fred does a very messy somersault from one side of the sofa to another causing Ellie to sigh loudly.

“So glad you’re here, darlin’,” Alec says to his daughter. “Thank you.”

“My sociology professor doesn’t take attendance anyway,” Daisy replies. “So it’s like I didn’t miss class at all.”

Aila, who is in Tom’s arms, has been bouncing and is now doing so _quite_ impatiently. She is accustomed to her father going straight to her the minute he returns home from work and scooping her up. It is taking _far_ too long for him to give her his attention.

“A- _da_ -da, da-da,” she whines, a grumpy little frown on her face.

“Ah yes.” Alec gingerly steps past Daisy and collects Aila. She slaps his face repeatedly. “Thank you,” he says to her.

“Anyway you’ve got me all evening!” Daisy announces. “I’m yours ‘til my train in the morning.”

He pulls Daisy to him again and kisses the top of her head. Aila tangles her fingers in Daisy’s hair. Then he looks across the room at Ellie, who is leaning against the doorframe with a proud smile on her face.

“You did this, didn’t you?”

Ellie shrugs noncommittally and makes a coy face.

“Masterminded the whole thing,” Daisy answers on her behalf.

He doesn’t take his eyes off his wife.

“Daiz and I are going to cook as well,” Tom says, sitting on the arm of the sofa. “We’ve just gone to the market and you’re to stay out of the kitchen until it’s all finished, no exceptions.”

Alec blinks a bit in confusion, then looks at Ellie again. “There’s no do, is there?”

She smiles knowingly and shakes her head slowly, her arms folded across her chest with great satisfaction. “There’s no do.”

A great wave of relief washes over him and then, in quick succession, an even greater wave of love.

“You _hate_ parties,” Ellie says with a smirk. “D’you really think I’d do that to you on your own bloody birthday?”

He goes straight to her, nearly giving the baby whiplash. Slipping his free arm around her waist he pulls her against him, gazing down at her cocky grin with a sort of awe. When he kisses her it’s so soft and intimate that the other children have to look away. He touches her cheek, then gives her earlobe a gentle tug before kissing her one last time. Aila brings her arms to Ellie’s neck and demands a transfer.

“My brilliant wife,” he says, handing Aila over to her amenably.

“Anything for my lovely husband,” she returns in kind, her cheeks blushing slightly from the softness of the moment.

After one last lingering look at her, he turns back to the kids and claps his hands together. “Right, then. Tom and Daiz are about to don their aprons. Fred, what d’you say you and I – “

“PARK!” Fred exclaims, hopping off the sofa in a giant bound.

“Run off to the park for a bit, yes.” He turns back to Ellie with a smile. “All right with you, Mummy?”

“By all means.”

Aila claps her hands and bounces in Ellie’s arms, though she does not know why.

*

After Fred and Alec scurry off to the park, Ellie and Aila head upstairs. Aila gets a nappy change and then Ellie changes out of her work clothes.

The baby sits on the floor gnawing on her teething giraffe while Ellie stands at her closet in her underthings and stares at what’s on offer.

“What do we think, little bug?” She asks. “Jumper and leggings or something nicer for Daddy’s birthday?”

“Dumdumdum,” Aila says.

Ellie raises an eyebrow. “Who you callin’ a _dumdum_ , Aila Grace?”

Aila grins. “Dumdumdumdum.”

“Daddy’s very _cheeky_ Wee Lass.” She turns back to the closet. “You’re right though, of course. Keep it casual and wait ‘til later to get Daddy’s blood pressure up.”

The baby nods enthusiastically, her nose nearly hitting her chest each time. “Yayaya.”

*

Fred insists upon playing Pirates. All of Fred’s preferred imaginary games, Pirates is one of the few Alec can get behind. Plastic swords and eye patches? Bring it on.

“I’m the captain and you’re the first mate,” Fred declares as he climbs up the monkey bars.

Alec frowns. “Isn’t it _my_ birthday?”

“No it’s the first mate’s birthday.”

*

After changing into an oversized green jumper and purple leggings, Ellie is playing with Aila on the bed. She lays on her back and holds the baby above her, watching her little legs kick happily. She makes faces and Aila mimics them ably. Then there’s a familiar ringtone sounding from the iPad on her bedside table. She grabs it, then sits cross-legged with Aila in her lap before accepting the FaceTime call from Greer.

“Ah! There’s my wee little love,” Greer exclaims immediately, upon seeing Aila’s face leaning in close to the camera.

“Mmmmmm-muh,” Aila says.

“Is that her way of blowin’ me a kiss then?”

Ellie laughs. “We’ll go with that.”

“Where’ve I caught you? Birthday boy ‘round somewhere?” Greer asks.

“Out with Fred,” Ellie replies. “Baby and I are just biding our time while Tom and Daiz fix supper on their own.”

Greer raises a skeptical eyebrow in response.

“I know, I know,” Ellie agrees. “But they’ve got recipes to follow and all, plus Alec will be thrilled that they simply took the time to do this for him. It’s a win-win for them. Not so certain for me though.”

“How’s he been? Grumpy?”

“Mm, a bit.” She shrugs. “On and off. Mood vastly improved the second half of the day. He scheduled a bloody therapy appointment on his own birthday and I thought for sure he’d be broody after but he seems quite content at the moment.”

“Gettin’ Daiz home was an inspired idea,” Greer tells her.

“Well.” Ellie looks down and nods. “She’s the only thing he really wanted. Most gifts are sort of lost on him. He doesn’t see the point of nice things.”

Greer nods. “Our father hated birthdays too, you know. So he comes by it honestly.”

“As he does most things,” Ellie agrees easily.

“Yes.”

Greer stares off a bit. Ellie moves the iPad out of Aila’s grasp, holding it slightly above her.

“Well,” Greer says suddenly, shaking out of it. “I trust you’ll show him a good time tonight.”

Ellie smirks at her slyly. Greer rolls her eyes.

“Naughty.”

Laughing, Ellie replies, “He’ll do all right for himself certainly. ‘Least he has all the things he likes. Scotch, children, me, in that order, probably. Perhaps he’ll even get to choose what’s on telly tonight!”

Greer smiles. “Give him my love. He’ll only be irritated if I try to phone him.”

“I will.”

By now, Aila is climbing Ellie’s body trying to reach the iPad, babbling nonsense words with great consternation.

“Night night, wee one,” Greer coos to her. “Best gift of all, you are.”

*

When Alec and Fred return home, Ellie is standing at the bar in the dining room making herself a gin and tonic, all the while Aila is nursing at her breast.

Alec immediately snorts out loud at the sight of her.

“What?” She replies nonchalantly. “I’m multi-tasking.”

“Want a snack,” Fred announces, tugging on Alec’s jumper.

“Too close to supper,” Ellie says quickly. “Why don’t you run upstairs and change into your pyjamas, since you’ve made such a mess of yourself. And wash up please.”

Fred looks up at Alec plaintively, silently hoping for another option. But no such luck.

“Do as your mother says, lad, eh?”

Fred sighs dramatically. “ _Okay_.”

Then he runs off at full-speed. Alec approaches the bar.

“Giving her a quick taste so I can start celebrating properly,” Ellie explains to him, nodding at her drink. “Can I make you one?”

Alec chuckles, shaking his head. “I’ll do it.”

Aila hums happily at her father’s presence but continues to nurse uninterrupted.

“Did you enjoy yourselves?” Ellie asks, stepping to the side.

He reaches for a bottle of scotch but then puts it down and pulls out a chair from the dining room table for her to sit in. She settles herself into it, carefully not to dislodge the baby.

“We were pirates,” he replies. “Hardly anyone there, by the way.”

“Well it’s a bit brisk.”

He pours his scotch into a short glass. “Not _so_ brisk.”

“Have you noticed he only wants to play Pirates with you when I’m not around?” Ellie observes. “Like it’s some secret thing he has with you.”

Alec cocks his head to the side as he lifts his glass to his lips. “I’d claim implicit gender bias but this is the boy who wants to be Wonder Woman for Halloween.” He pulls out the chair beside her and seats himself. “What’s the word on supper? Leanin’ toward edible do we think?”

Ellie smiles uncertainly and then laughs. “Well, Tom’s breakfast was quite good, wasn’t it?” Alec nods. “And Daisy’s got your genes in her, perhaps she’s inherited your culinary talent.” She glances down at Aila, still hungrily suckling away. “Hurry up then, little bug, Mummy’s got a great big G&T to drink.”

Aila tips her head back and stares up at her mother with a frown.

Alec laughs out loud. “An un _canny_ child.”

At the sound of his laughter, the baby tips her head upside down to smile at him.

“Bloody cheeky is what she is,” Ellie replies, guiding Aila back to her breast. “Finish up now.”

“Gets it from _you_ , you know.”

She sighs heavily and grumbles back, “ _I know_.”

*

Tom and Daisy have prepared lightly breaded baked chicken breasts with linguini and a creamy parmesan sauce topped blistered cherry tomatoes, plus a side salad. It is _incredibly_ impressive to their parents.

They eat in the dining room after Fred sets the table all by himself. Tom and Daisy are allowed a glass of wine each. Daisy almost argues that she could well have more if she liked but she chooses to save that fight for another time. She regales them all with tales of her new cohort, the clubs she’s joined, her favourite professors. She impresses them with a few phrases of Italian. Fred vies for attention now and then, torn between his excitement at Daisy’s return and his irritation at being sidelined. Aila happily munches on tomatoes, pushing away the tiny pieces of chicken Ellie puts on her tray in favour of them.

Alec finds himself savouring each moment in a way he is often too preoccupied to. He remembers Marjorie’s advice to practice gratitude and accept love, instead of rejecting her advice outright as he is too frequently wont to do. Each and every person at the table is someone he is well and truly overwhelmed with love for. Is in awe of. Each one brings him joy.

He cleans his plate, a rare occurrence. Tom and Daisy both clock this, but say nothing, choosing instead to smile with satisfaction at one another rather than embarrass him. Fred has eaten about 75%, also an extraordinary feat. Ellie is well into seconds. And Aila is banging her tray, demanding more. She smacks the palm of her hand against her mouth over and over until Ellie cuts up some linguini and drops it on the tray for her.

“Ayayayayaya,” she babbles as she shoves handfuls into her mouth.

Alec can’t help leaning over and kissing the top of her head, which causes her to look up at him with a big grin.

“Is it time for cake?” Fred questions impatiently, moving to sit on his legs.

“Need a bit of a breather, mate,” Alec replies, patting his stomach. “Maybe a stretch of the legs.”

“Mm.” Ellie nods, catching on. “How about this. Dad and Daisy go for a bit of a stroll together, eh? Then Fred – “

“No!” Fred whines.

“ _Then Fred_ ,” she continues, unperturbed. “Gets to watch one episode of _The Mandalorian_.”

“Two.”

“One.”

“One and a half,” Fred bargains.

“One.”

“Fine.”

“…And I’ll tidy up the kitchen while Tom looks after the baby.” She looks around the table. “Okay with everyone?”

There is general consent, and Alec reaches across Aila’s highchair to squeeze Ellie’s hand.

*

Daisy grabs Ellie’s orange windbreaker from the coat rack before they head outside. It takes Alec a moment to recover from seeing his daughter in his wife’s coat, for reasons passing even his own understanding.

“I assume if there was any new gossip I’d have heard about it by now,” Daisy says as they stroll through the neighborhood. “Between El and Tom and Lucy.”

“If there _is_ any, I certainly don’t know about it.”

Daisy rolls her eyes. “Dad. Look at who you’re married to.”

“All right fine, there’s no new gossip,” Alec admits. “Your sister’s about one desperate moment away from walkin’ on her own though. She’s been cruisin’ along the sofa and the coffee table and things like that. Bit alarmin’, actually.”

She grins. “Her birthday’s coming up.”

“Shh, hush now.” He shakes his head. “I insist you all cease growin’ up immediately. Can’t take much more of this.”

“Fred’ll soon be _seven_ ,” Daisy notes with a smirk. “In less than two years Tom’ll be out of the house…”

“You’re cruel.” He waves tepidly at a neighbour bringing her bins out. “Tell me about university. How’s your new mate, what’s her name, Hannah?”

“Yeah, Hannah, she’s good. We go to the cinema now and then, but mostly do our studying together.”

“Good. As it should be,” Alec replies. “Your aunt said she and Megan visited last weekend.”

“Yeah, like you haven’t already heard all about it from _them_ ,” Daisy quips. “It was nice. They took me out for a proper supper, I gave them a tour of campus. Nothing wild.”

“She didn’t embarrass you in front of your mates?” He asks with surprise.

“Nah. On her best behavior, she was.” Daisy zips up the jacket. “How’s things at the station? Any exciting new cases?”

“Mercifully no.”

“You used to love exciting new cases,” she says with a laugh.

“Now I like to be home by six.”

“How things change.”

“Well, your sister’s in bed by seven,” Alec says with a sigh. “If I don’t make it home I hardly see her all day. And Fred’s down by eight. It’s harder with small children.”

“Soppy.” Daisy grins and nudges his shoulder with hers. “You met Tom’s new girlfriend yet?”

“So he _does_ have a new girlfriend.” He shakes his head. “Ellie’s been convinced.”

“Chelsea,” she tells him. “I’ve not met her either obviously. And Tom’s not said much, you know boys.”

Alec scoffs.

“Speakin' of boys…” He trails off. “Or _girls_. Or – “

“Just say people, Dad.”

“Right.”

“Not dating anyone,” she assures him. “Everything’s too weird and new at the moment. One thing at a time, you know?”

“Good for you,” Alec agrees. “No need to overwhelm yourself.”

“Exactly.”

He throws an arm around her shoulders and squeezes her against him. “That’s a good lass.”

*

By the time they return, it’s time for the baby to go down. Ellie offers to do it half-heartedly, knowing that Alec in fact _loves_ to do it and would _want_ to do it, even on his birthday.

A sleepy Aila is quite miffed to be dragged away from her family as they are all assembling in the living room together. Surely they couldn’t be hanging out without her. But once Alec carries her into the nursery, she begins to settle. He changes her nappy, then changes her into her onesie pyjamas and sleep sack while she chatters away. He turns on the night light and the sound machine, then turns off all other lights. He sits in the rocking chair and cradles her as she drinks her bedtime bottle. Her big eyes stare up at him the whole time, never looking away. He hums an old Scottish lullaby quietly. With one hand, she reaches up and scratches at his beard.

“Forty-nine years old,” he says with a sigh. “Who’d ever have thought. Just an old man with a tiny baby.”

“Baba,” Aila replies.

“That’s right. Dunno how I got so lucky.” She sticks her fingers in his mouth. “Thank you,” he murmurs. She giggles, the bottle falling out of her mouth. He rights it for her and holds it there while she uses both hands to scratch at his face. “Shh, shh. No more funny business, wee lass. It’s to bed with you.” Aila shakes her head. The bottle falls out again.

“A- _da_ -da,” she says happily. Then yawns.

“Ah, there it is, you see. Daddy’s wee lass needs her rest, doesn’t she.” Aila crinkles her nose up. He sets the bottle down then stands, bouncing her a bit in front of her crib. She kicks her legs defiantly. “Not gonna let Daddy cradle you, hmm? Fine.” He repositions her on his chest, patting her back until she lays her head on his shoulder. “There we are.” She yawns again. “Sweet Aila Grace.”

“Ai-yaya,” she murmurs drowsily.

“ _Aila_ , yes.” He rocks back and forth, his lips pressed to the top of her head, her thin, wispy brown hair. “A very sleepy girl. Sleepy, sleepy girl.” When he looks down, her eyes are closed, her mouth open. He chuckles softly to himself.

After gently laying her in her crib, he stands looking down at her for perhaps too long, then returns to the rest of his family.

*

Fred is snuggled up against Ellie on the sofa. Tom and Daisy are sitting on the floor squabbling about something.

“She go down all right?” Ellie looks up as Alec enters the room.

“Bit stubborn.” He collapses onto the sofa on the other side of her, arm going around her shoulders naturally. “But ultimately powerless in face of her own exhaustion.”

He gives her a quick kiss. And then another one. She smiles back.

“This one’s already a bit knackered,” she says, nodding down at Fred.

“Not tired,” Fred says loudly without lifting his head.

“Nah, ‘course not,” Alec replies. “Just like a good snuggle, eh.”

“Well, what’ll it be then?” Ellie asks, trying to get everyone’s attention. “Film? Game? A bit of sparkling conversation?”

“Alec gets to choose,” Tom answers. “It’s his birthday.”

Fred shoots up suddenly. “CAKE!”

“Oh, blimey,” Ellie exhales. “I’d forgotten all about it.”

“Film,” Alec says. “And a spot of cake.”

“CAAAAAAAKE!”

The cake is vanilla. Fred starts to complain that it’s not chocolate when his mother gives him a stern glare.

“ _Not your birthday_ ,” she reminds him for the millionth time.

They decide to put on a Pixar film, one of few genres the entire family can agree on. Alec chooses _Up_ , and then promptly regrets it as the first fifteen minutes of the film wreck almost all of them. Except Fred.

Alec holds Ellie’s hand tightly throughout the whole thing, kissing it often. He’d never admit to once or twice hiding his face in her shoulder and choking back a sob.

“Happy bloody birthday,” Ellie whispers with a snort. “Why on earth did you choose this?”

“Dunno,” he replies honestly. “ _WALL-E_ makes _you_ cry, _Inside Out_ makes Daisy cry, and Fred gets too loud watching _Ratatouille._ ”

She pats his hand. “Think we can now say with some certainty that _Up_ makes _you_ cry.”

Shortly thereafter, Ellie gets up to go to the loo and when she returns, she’s licking frosting off her fingers.

She settles back into Alec on the sofa. He’s smirking at her with great amusement.

“What?”

“You’ve snuck some more cake, haven’t you.”

“No.” She looks just slightly insulted.

He leans down and kisses her lips. “…Evidence to the contrary,” he says, tasting the sugar on her own lips.

She smiles back sheepishly.

When the film ends, Fred announces that he’s only going to bed if Alec tucks him in.

“No arguments here,” Ellie says, holding her hands up and backing away.

Daisy and Tom decide to stay downstairs and play video games together for a while. Ellie kisses them both goodnight and heads upstairs after Alec and Fred.

After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she pulls a shopping bag out of her closet. She changes into a purple lace bra and knickers set, extra skimpy, and then covers herself with a matching silk and lace dressing gown that stops just above the knee. She’s sweeping her curls up in a clip when she hears him in the hallway.

“Fell asleep after the first book,” Alec says upon entering the room. “A birthday miracle.”

Then he sees Ellie, leaning against the wall across the room, one shapely ankle crossed over the other.

“ _Oh_ ,” he exhales. “I see you managed to get yourself a present as well.”

“More for you than for me,” she replies demurely. “Wouldn’t you say?”

He’s already pulling off his belt as he slowly approaches her.

“One last gift for the birthday boy.”

“ _Hello_.” He places his hands on her waist.

She flutters her eyelashes at him. “Hello.”

He brings a hand to her cheek, then brushes a few stray hairs out of her eyes. “Lovely.”

She pulls him closer by his shirt. “Are you happy?”

“ _Ellie_.” He presses his lips to her brow, then to her forehead. “Never happier,” he whispers.

“Then I’ve done my job,” she says proudly.

“And then some.” He tilts his face down to watch himself untie the belt of her dressing gown and open it up. His breath catches in his throat then he exhales. “I’m a very lucky man.”

“Yes, you are.” She tilts her head to the side, watching him staring at her body, each rise and fall of her chest.

Alec brings one hand to her hip, then leans in and presses his lips to her collarbone, softly and slowly kisses his way over it. Ellie can barely breathe. She runs a hand through his hair, then slides her hands underneath his jumper, up his back.

“Waited all day for this,” he whispers huskily, kissing the tops of her breasts.

“Really?” She asks with amusement, opening her eyes.

“Mm.” He slides one hand up beneath the underwire of her bra and cups her breast. “Last year you didn’t make me wait for it.”

“Well I was very pregnant and very horny as I recall.”

“Oh yes.”

“And no one’s _made you wait for it_ ,” she adds with a scoff. “We’ve had a very busy day.”

He raises his head to smirk at her. “Last year you dragged me into the ladies’ washroom at work and shoved my hand down your trousers.”

“I was seven months pregnant! I accept zero responsibility for my actions.”

“Words everyone loves to hear from a rankin’ detective.” He dips his head back down again, pressing warm kisses to her chest.

“I’m a class act.”

With one hand in her bra, he slips the other one into her knickers. “Yes you are.”

She lets out a sound that is both breathy and high-pitched at the same time and it makes him grin into her skin.

And then, “Take your clothes off.”

“Hm?”

She places her hands on his shoulders and pushes him back a bit. “Clothes. Off.”

He takes a reluctant step back and begins the very annoying process of divesting himself of his clothing. In the meantime, Ellie very swiftly and elegantly lets the dressing gown fall off her shoulders. Then she goes to the bed, throws back the covers on her side, and arranges herself tantalizingly.

“Good christ, El,” he chokes out, pulling his jumper overhead. “Wife, mother, detective, _goddess_.”

Her entire body goes a bit pink. Stripped down to his briefs, he crawls onto the bed until he’s hovering over her on all fours. Ellie drags her forefinger from the bridge of his nose to the tip.

“Happy birthday, my sweet love.” Her hand rests at his cheek.

He kisses her palm. “Do love when you call me that.”

She smiles. “I know.”

Gently, he lowers himself between her legs, his lips immediately on hers, his tongue quickly bypassing them. His kisses are fervent and needy, almost aggressively so, and she responds by locking her ankles to his and pulling him even tighter against her. Neither one of them can possibly get close enough. He squeezes her breast with one hand causing them both to moan contentedly. Then she slides both hands into his briefs and cups his arse, kneading him and drawing him even closer.

“Pants off now,” she whispers breathlessly, holding his face an inch back from hers.

His hair falls over his eyes as he looks down at her. “Already?”

“ _Already_ , yes.” She rolls her eyes and reaches down for her own knickers.

“Right, then.”

They each peel off their respective underwear and then he dives on top of her again.

“Impatient,” he notes with some amusement just as he returns to kissing her.

“Complaining?”

“Ah, no…” His cock teases her entrance and he smiles smugly against her lips.

“Bastard,” she breathes out.

“ _My_ birthday,” he replies, grinding his hips.

With a bit of a scowl, she reaches for his arse again and raises her hips, then pulls him inside her. They both seem to breathe a sigh of relief, then smile at each other.

“Mm.” She closes her eyes and strokes his face.

He kisses her brow. “Thank you for today,” he says softly. “For everythin’.” He kisses beneath her eye. “…’Cept for the bloody balloons.”

She chuckles then guides his lips back down to hers. He fumbles with her bra as she kisses him.

“Front clasp,” she says quickly.

“Ah.” He snaps it open and both cups immediately fall to the side. He lets out a growl of appreciation, then abandons her lips for one of her nipples.

“I see how it is,” Ellie remarks, though her stroking of his hair as he sucks on her breasts is certainly encouraging.

“Thought of them in therapy today,” he murmurs.

Her eyes narrow. “ _What_?”

“Dunno why. They just popped into my head at some point.” He moves to her other breast to offer it equal attention. “Spent much of the day desperate to feel you up.”

“Unbelievable,” Ellie laughs, then she moves her hips a bit impatiently until he starts moving inside her with intention. “Next year for your birthday I’ll just show up in your office topless,” she says. “ _For your fiftieth_.”

He raises his head, a frown on his face. Then, without a word, returns to her breast, sucking a mark into the underside of it. She arches her back cooperatively and sighs, keeping her fingers tangled in his hair.

“Oh, I love you,” she breathes out, closing her eyes again.

“Mm.”

“I’m _so_ glad you’re my husband."

“Mmhm.”

“After all, I _have_ done worse.”

He bites into her flesh.

“ _Ow_.” But then she laughs.

Alec returns to her lips then, _hearing_ her smile and needing desperately to kiss it. She wraps her arms around him and encourages him to thrust deeper inside her.

“My sweet, sweet love.” She holds his face and keeps their gazes locked even as he starts to move faster. She nods her approval. “Yes.”

His breathing is already becoming ragged, beats of sweat dripping from his forehead and down his back. She can feel his heart beating through his chest.

“Fuck, Ellie.”

“Yes…” She says again, throwing her head back.

He buries his face in her neck, sucking on her pulse point greedily. One hand kneads her breast continuously throughout.

“Alec,” she gasps out.

“Mm.”

“Hang on.”

In a surprisingly fluid motion she manages to flip them over, positioning herself on top with great satisfaction. His hands reach for both of hers and he tangles their fingers together as she moves over him. He watches her every movement with rapt attention, the way her breasts glisten and her hair falls over her face. She elicits little whimpering noises as her thrusts become wilder and less rhythmic.

“You’re so beautiful,” he tells her.

She grins down at him and leans forward, pressing his arms into the bed, their hands tangled together at either side of his head.

“I’m close,” she says.

He nods. He is too.

She kisses him deeply, squeezing his hands tighter as she begins to experience the familiar sensation rising in her. Her spine straightens as she cries out, gasping just inches from his mouth, and he follows, pushing up into her hard. He cries out her name and her lips on his before he chokes it out one more time. Catching their breath, their smiles into each other’s mouths and she collapses fully on top of him with a heavy exhale.

“Love you so much.” His fingers run through her damp hair and he kisses her forehead. “So _fucking_ much.”

“Mm.” She kisses his cheek, then his neck, then raises herself up off him, moving to his side. “That was lovely, thank you.”

He smirks. But she doesn’t notice.

“Was nice and easy,” he remarks, turning onto his side to face her. “Barely had to touch you.”

“Oh shut up.” She pulls the duvet up over them and snuggles into him. “You’re not the only one who was a bit randy all day. It’s very sexy watching you in Dad mode you know.”

“Yeah?” He’s pleased and it’s written all over his face.

“Watching the kids all fawn over you. All of them so mad about you,” she explains. “Nothing sexier than a good dad.” She presses a kiss to his chest. “Also find it very sexy those rare occasions you actually eat sweets.”

“Really, the _cake_ turned you on?”

She rolls her eyes. “Not the _cake_ , you _eating_ the cake. Wanker.” She holds him tightly, wedging her head between his neck and shoulder. “How’s forty-nine feel so far?”

“Can’t ask me that after I’ve just come inside you.”

“Can too.”

“Fine then, bloody love forty-nine so far, can’t complain,” he admits. “Thrilled to be off the crutches. And off the condoms.”

“Yes, well done.”

“Can’t wait to shag you without latex until my dying day.”

Ellie raises her head and winces at him. “ _On_ the day, really?”

He sighs. “Impossible, you are.”

She smiles, pleased, and lays her head down again. “Put it that way I’m convinced it’s the _shag_ that’ll kill you.”

He tightens his arms around her and kisses the top of her head. “Quiet, you.”

“Back to normal tomorrow, you know,” she says with a tone of warning in her voice. “No more birthday. No more all about you.”

“I’m _devastated_.”

She’s quiet for a moment, then she says, “It’s nice to be happy, isn’t it.”

He strokes her bare arm with his fingertips. “Ah. Yeah.”

She tilts her head up and smiles at him. He kisses her curved lips.

Then he lays his head back down. And breathes out.

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a short bonus chapter about Halloween. I know it's late but I couldn't let Aila's first Halloween pass by unchecked.


	5. Halloween Bonus Chapter!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hardys celebrate Halloween!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is so late. :(

Alec rolls over into his pillow when Ellie’s alarm goes off. He hears her hop out of bed easily, unperturbed by the piercing sound that’s now ringing in _his_ ears. Just as he starts to drift off again – thankfully it’s still dark – he feels her crawl back onto the bed on her knees.

“Babe.” She kisses his cheek.

He groans in response, closing his eyes even tighter.

“I’m gonna pop over to the gym,” she says quietly, kissing his temple now.

He opens one eye. “Really?”

“Yeah, need to get back in the habit, holidays and all,” Ellie says. He turns his head a bit to see she’s in her workout clothes. “Probably won’t last long. Maybe thirty, forty minutes.”

He grunts and closes his eyes again. She squeezes his arm.

“You’ll get up with the baby?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Ta.” She kisses his cheek one last time. “See you in a bit.”

*

On the treadmill Ellie finds herself thinking about how very peculiar and unexpected it is that they have a baby.

Said baby is nearly a year old now. And still every now and then it gives her pause. She has to pinch herself sometimes. She’s forty-four and she has a tiny baby with Alec Hardy. To whom she is married. As normal and quotidian as her life feels to her most days, the shock of it all occasionally slaps her right in the face.

Six years ago she’d never have imagined anything other than what she had then. Two boys, a husband named Joe, a small but happy life amongst friends and family in Broadchurch. Now she’s married to her irascible former boss, has finally gotten the job she never thought she’d actually get, and has a baby who is just like her. A baby girl.

She slows down the speed on the treadmill when her head starts to spin a bit.

“Bit self-indulgent, Ellie,” she mutters to herself, reaching for her water bottle. “Save it for Dr. Keller.”

When she realizes she’s talking to herself, she looks around and silently thanks the universe that those nearby her all have earphones in. She would too if her baby hadn’t recently ripped them apart with the few teeth she has.

She picks up speed again.

 _Also fit as ever_ , she notes to herself. _Probably look better than I did at thirty_. She wonders why. Perhaps it’s that she actually goes to the gym, even if it’s sometimes infrequent. Perhaps it’s chasing after the baby. But she actually thinks it might be happiness. She rarely overeats. Rarely drinks enough to get past tipsy. And has quite a lot of sex, thank you very much. So somehow, despite having given birth three times and the fact that she’s probably approaching (yikes) menopause, she looks better than ever.

She smiles and holds her head up high as she ups the speed of the treadmill and begins to run.

 _It’s lovely to be married to someone who wants to shag you all the time_ , she thinks. Who can’t seem to get enough of her. Nice to have a reliably good sex life, not one that comes and goes, dependent on moods and the chaos of life. They shag when they’re happy and they shag when they’re sad. Shag when they win, shag when they lose. Sometimes they even shag when they’re fighting. They’re always connected. _Nice, that_.

Her mobile buzzes and she glances down to where she’s propped it up by the treadmill console.

A text from Lucy. _Popping over for supper tonight._

Ellie blinks. That sounds about right. Far be it for her sister to ever _ask_ first.

Then another text from Lucy follows: _Bringing something for Aila_.

Suspicious.

Ellie is already thinking of ways to make certain that Fred is distracted when Lucy arrives. He still does not take well to people bringing things for his sister and not for him. Children are like a chess match, she thinks. You always have to stay one step ahead.

She’s distracted from her strategy when Hal passes in front of her with a towel thrown over his shoulder.

“Morning, El.”

She smiles. “Morning.”

Although she and Hal have _always_ gone to the same gym (there is, in fact, only one proper gym in Broadchurch), she makes a mental note not to tell Alec about this brief encounter.

*

Ellie finds her family in the kitchen eating breakfast when she returns. She pops in briefly to kiss each one of them on the top of the head, then Alec on the lips, before running upstairs to shower. Aila somehow manages to get yoghurt in her mother’s hair despite only a half-second of physical interaction.

She’s only been in the shower for five minutes when she hears Alec calling her name from close by. Then she notices his shadow appear in the loo through the shower curtain.

“El,” he says. “Baby’s managed to cover herself in yoghurt-y goo. And not just her.”

Ellie sticks her head outside the curtain to see. Alec has a very naked baby in his arms and she is indeed a mess, as is Alec’s shirt. She snorts.

“D’you want to just take her in with you and I can change?”

She nods. “Give her here.”

Alec transfers the baby carefully into her arms.

“What’ve you done, little miss?”

Aila seems quite pleased with herself truth be told. She yells _yayayayayaya_ at full volume, so as to be heard over the din of the water as Ellie’s rinses her off.

“You’ve soiled Daddy’s favourite suit, he’ll not be pleased, you know,” she says.

“Not my favourite!” Alec calls back to her, followed by, “M’second favourite.”

Aila gleefully pinches Ellie’s breasts.

“All right, that’s enough, you’re enjoying this too much.”

Ellie turns off the water. Now changed into a new suit, Alec enters the loo as she pulls back the curtain. He holds out Aila’s tiger towel with the little tiger-eared hood. He wraps her in it then holds her to him, then Ellie reaches for her own towel.

“She has far too much fun,” she says, stepping out of the shower.

“I agree. We must work harder to make her miserable.”

Alec walks Aila over to the bed and lays her down, drying her off.

“Where’s the quiet, somber little baby Fred was?” He asks.

“And Tom was.”

“Daisy too, frankly.”

Aila puts a corner of the towel into her mouth and chews on it. “ _Yayayayayaya_.” She coughs a bit, choking on it briefly. Then continues. “ _Ayayayayayaya_.”

“Two detectives with utterly devastating pasts,” Ellie says. “Somehow made an outrageously happy baby.”

Alec looks up at her with smirk. “Perhaps ‘cause they were so happy when they were makin’ her.” He grabs one of Aila’s feet and kisses it until she squeals with laughter.

“Unbelievable.”

*

In a switch from the usual, Alec appears at Ellie’s office door for once. She looks up when his shadow darkens the doorway.

“Oh hello.”

He has his signature grumpy face on.

“What is it then?” She puts her pen down and leans back in her chair expectantly.

“Not sure about this Addams Family thing,” he announces, moving to sit on her sofa. “I mean it’s a bit…Fred’s already goin’ to be Wonder Woman and Tom may forgo fancy dress altogether, so what’s the point really?”

“Alec,” she sighs, getting up and moving to sit at the edge of her desk. “I chose this _for you_. It’s literally the easiest thing you could do. All you have to do is _wear a suit_.”

“And a mustache,” he says with a pout.

“Hardly difficult for you.”

“And the baby can’t be part of it,” he adds. “There’s no Addams baby.”

She sighs again, raising a pointed eyebrow at him. “Come here.”

He simply frowns at her.

“ _Come here_.”

Alec stands and goes to her. She holds out her arms to him. He’s hesitant because the door is open, but walks into them, powerless against her. She slides her arms up around his neck.

“Right, then. What is it you’d like to be instead?”

He grunts back at her dubiously.

“You _can’t_ choose nothing,” she tells him sternly. “And if you can’t choose nothing, then the best option for you is…”

With a dramatic exhale, he agrees with her. “Gomez Addams.”

“Thank you, yes.” She pats his cheek. “You’ll do just fine. And you’ll love _my_ costume.”

He pulls her close and hides his face in her neck. She chuckles, lightly stroking the hair at the back of his neck.

“It’s your daughter’s first Halloween, Alec,” she reminds him. “We can’t have her looking back and seeing old photos of her grumpy old Dad, refusing to dress up.”

“I know,” he murmurs into her neck.

“And we’ll only be out for a bloody hour or so. Not as if I’m dragging you to a Halloween do or anything.”

“ _Better_ not be.”

She chuckles, then kisses his ear. “Go on, back to work then.”

He holds her tighter. “One more minute.”

“Oh, fine.”

*

Ellie stands with Aila on her hip as Lucy rummages through a duffel bag.

“One minute…one minute…”

“Minnnnnna,” Aila says.

“One minute.” She pulls a gaudy little bumblebee costume out of the bag. Dust explodes everywhere. “Here.”

Ellie coughs a bit and takes a step back away from the dust. Aila looks up at her in confused agitation.

“What on earth?”

Lucy shakes it off a bit. “It was Olly’s. When he was a baby,” she explains. “It’s a bumblebee costume.”

“BEEEEE,” Aila says.

Ellie blinks. “You’ve brought us a thirty-year-old bumblebee costume?”

“Cleaning out the place,” Lucy replies. “I’ve already binned bags and bags of rubbish. Found this, thought you might have use for it.”

“This is, um.” She shifts Aila from one hip to the other. “Very thoughtful, Lucy, thanks.”

Mercifully, the front door opens and Fred comes bursting in, followed closely by Alec. Fred is wearing his Wonder Woman costume.

“HERE IT IS!”

“ _Oh_ ,” Lucy gasps in surprise.

Ellie looks over at Alec. “You let him wear it out of the shop?”

“It was that or a meltdown and I honestly didn’t have strength,” Alec admits grudgingly.

“Do you like it???” Fred questions impatiently.

Ellie kneels down to his level, placing Aila on the floor to crawl around.

“You look fantastic, little love, it’s…wow. Fits you oddly well, doesn’t it?”

Aila crawls straight over to her father, who promptly scoops her up.

“I can fight _anyone_!” Fred exclaims.

“Well, perhaps not ‘til after supper,” Ellie tells him. “Thrilled as I am, you need to go on upstairs and change out of it.” Fred starts to pout and she senses an imminent meltdown. “We can’t risk you spilling anything on it before Halloween, can we? Or ripping it? It must be in _perfect_ condition. Isn’t that right?”

Fred nods, albeit with disappointment. “Yeah.”

“Go on then, love.”

He runs full speed upstairs. Alec steps up alongside Ellie and takes a peek at the bumblebee costume.

“What’s this then?”

Ellie looks at him with raised eyebrows when she responds. “This is _Olly’s old bumblebee costume_.”

“……Ah.”

Lucy shrugs. “Thought Aila might like it.”

“Ai-ayay,” Aila says. Alec kisses her cheek.

“Dad brought over a baby shark costume last night,” Ellie informs her sister.

Lucy frowns. “Really?”

Alec and Ellie exchange glances. “And we’ve already gotten her a pumpkin costume.”

Still frowning, Lucy asks, “Why’s Dad want her to be a baby shark?”

Ellie shrugs back. “Dunno, just thought it was cute, I reckon.”

“Everybody wants to dress the baby,” Alec says, bouncing her a bit. “Everyone wants a piece of the cutest baby around.”

Aila slaps his cheeks happily. Ellie registers the disappointment on her sister’s face.

“ _Thank_ you, Luce. Truly.” She puts an arm around her. “We’ve loads of options now. We’ll let Aila choose when the time comes.”

Alec looks at her. “She’s eleven months old.”

“If _any_ baby has ever known her own mind…”

He simply sighs.

“Come on then.” Ellie guides her sister toward the hall. “Let’s have us a glass of wine, eh?”

*

That night, while they’re both lying in bed with their respective books, Alec puts his book down on his lap and pulls his glasses off.

“She’s goin’ to be a pumpkin,” he says. “Right?”

Ellie smirks, keeping her eyes on the page. “So concerned about costumes all of a sudden, aren’t we.”

“For our baby’s first Halloween, yeah.”

She puts in her bookmark and looks at him. “You don’t think she’ll be utterly adorable as a bumblebee? Or a baby shark?”

“Didn’t you say Fred was a baby shark?” He asks.

“Yes, and Tom was a baby lion.”

“So I think that well rules out baby shark, don’t you?” He tosses his book onto his nightstand and turns onto his side. “And the bumblebee thing…we’re not lettin’ her wear a three decade old costume, are we? Really?”

She touches his cheek. “I love that you’re so into this, I really do,” she says. “We have to at least put her in the other costumes briefly and take photos for Lucy and Dad. But then, yes. She can be a baby pumpkin.”

He grins. “Bloody well right.” Then he wraps an arm around her and moves on top of her, sending her book gliding off the bed.

“ _Oh_.” She chuckles.

He starts unbuttoning her pyjama top.

“You really _are_ into this.”

“Thinkin’ about you as Morticia Addams.” He buries his face in her breasts reverently.

“See?” She parts her thighs so he can settle comfortably between her legs. “Halloween’s not so bad, is it?”

He takes a nipple in his mouth and grunts.

*

Ellie has a group of detective sergeants gathered around her in the main bullpen when 4pm rolls around on Halloween. Alec, overcoat on and briefcase in hand, rounds the corner briskly. He comes up behind her as she finishes giving out instructions.

With a hand on her waist, he leans into her ear and says, “Four o’clock, lass, off we go.”

“Oh. Right.” She gives them their final instructions as he disappears into her office.

“This is us off,” she says to their subordinates. “Halloween with small children, this is how it goes. Ring if you need me, but – “

Alec comes back out of her office with her coat and her briefcase. “But it had better be an emergency if you do.” He hands them to her.

She looks at him incredulously and shakes her head. He helps her put on her coat.

“This is _not_ the man I married,” she quips, eliciting a few chuckles from their colleagues.

“Come on,” he says, taking her hand.

“Have a good evening, everyone!” She calls out as he drags her off.

*

“Can’t wait to see the baby in her wee costume,” he explains from behind the wheel as they pull out of the car park. “Watch Fred run around as Wonder Woman.”

“He’ll be mad, you remember how he was last year,” she replies, but she’s smiling.

“It’ll be great.”

Ellie grins and reaches for his hand before turning to look out the window.

*

In Fred’s room, the transformation has begun. Ellie puts the finishing touches on his costume, cinching the gold belt and adjusting it.

“There we are.”

“Do I look like her?” He asks excitedly.

“ _Exactly_ like her,” she replies, though silently she wonders if they should have gotten him a wig as well. “Absolutely uncanny.”

Fred strikes the Wonder Woman poses and Ellie claps her hands.

“I feel _powerful_!” He exclaims, hopping up onto his bed.

“You know what, little love?” She gently lifts him down again. “What do you think about a touch of makeup?”

His eyes light up. “Really?!”

“Yeah, why not.” She grabs his hand. “Come on with me.”

In the master bedroom, Fred sits at Ellie’s vanity while she kneels beside him, applying blush to his face.

“Mumma I’m hungry can I have candy for supper?”

Ellie snorts. “You haven’t _got_ any candy yet,” she replies. “And no, Daddy’s ordering pizza.”

“Cheesy _cheesy_ pizza?”

“Cheesy cheesy pizza, yes.”

“No veggies,” Fred says firmly.

“Not if he wants to touch me tonight.”

“What?”

“Nothing. All done.” She helps him stand on the chair and look in the mirror.

“ _Wow_ ,” he says in awe.

“El?” They hear Alec’s voice calling out from the hall and then almost immediately he appears in the doorway, a bouncy baby in his arms. “There you two are.”

“Daddy, look!” Fred jumps off the chair, nearly giving his mother a heart attack. “I’m Wonder Woman!”

“You certainly are, mate, look at you. Your mum’s gone all out, hasn’t she.” He throws a smirk at Ellie.

“No sense doing things halfway,” she replies, brushing some lingering powder off her. “Pizza?”

“Ordered,” he replies. “Veggie for me and the wee lass here, pepperoni for you and Tom, and a cheesy, cheesy pizza for Fred and Ryan.”

“Oh, bollocks,” Ellie curses under her breath. “Forgot about Ryan.”

“I’m gonna go downstairs and wait for him!” Fred exclaiming, sprinting out of the room.

“His folks are bringing him ‘round in a few,” Alec reminds her. “And we’re to drop him home later. Think we said by eight.”

“Right.” She sighs and places her hands on her hips. “Seen Tom?”

“For the briefest of moments,” he replies. “Says he’s goin’ to some party at a mate’s, but not ‘til after seven or so.”

“Is he going to come trick-or-treating with us?”

“ _Highly_ doubt it. Didn’t mention a costume at all.”

Aila holds her arms out to Ellie and Alec transfers her over.

“Hi, my sweet bug.” Ellie kisses her forehead. Aila starts pawing at her top. “Oh, all right.”

“Mummumumumumumum,” Aila says excitedly.

Ellie sits down at her vanity and unbuttons her blouse, unhooks her bra, and lets the baby nurse. “You should change,” she says to Alec.

“Not before _you_ do.”

She frowns at him.

“What?” He says. “I’ll look ridiculous without you.”

Ellie shakes her head and looks down at the baby instead, gently stroking her hair out of her face.

“Seems a bit knackered, doesn’t she?” She continues to stroke her forehead while she nurses.

Alec nods. “Molly said she barely napped this afternoon.”

“Must be all the excitement,” she says, looking up at him with a smirk. “All worked up like her Daddy.”

“Don’t need all this grief,” Alec says with a huff. “Gonna go bide my time with Wonder Woman instead.”

*

The pizza and Ryan arrive at the same time. Supper is a bit of a grabby hands free-for-all. Fred eats slowly and carefully for once in his life, only to avoid staining his precious costume. Aila picks the tomatoes and cheese off her slice of veggie pizza and smashes each piece into her mouth one by one.

“Should’ve asked _Ryan_ to be our Pugsley,” Alec whispers to Ellie.

Ryan is, in fact, Iron Man.

When Tom brings his plate into the kitchen from the dining room where the family is gathered, Ellie follows him.

“You sure you don’t want to go out with us, lovely? You don’t need a costume if that’s got you worried,” Ellie implores him. “Fred would be so happy to have you with him.”

“He’s got Ryan, he’ll be fine,” Tom answers. “Might pop over to Chelsea’s before the party and watch a scary film.”

Ellie sighs. “Fine. But I want you home by eleven.”

Tom grimaces. “Eleven?! On Halloween.”

“Exactly. One of the least safe nights of the year. _No one_ is on their best behavior,” she explains. “Want you home before things go off the rails.”

He sighs dramatically and moves past her. “ _Fine_.”

“And we want to bloody meet Chelsea before bloody Christmas!”

*

While Iron Man and Wonder Woman run around excitedly downstairs, Alec and Ellie head upstairs with the baby.

“All right.” Alec lays all three costumes out on their bed. “Shark, then bumblebee, then pumpkin.”

Ellie sits Aila on the bed and divests her of her clothing. Then Alec takes her and puts her into the shark costume.

Entirely nonplussed, Aila just lays on the bed chewing on her teething giraffe while her parents fawn over her.

“That _is_ bloody adorable,” Ellie says. “Her little shark tail.”

“Didn’t realize sharks ate giraffes.”

He pulls out his mobile and snaps a few photos.

“Right, next.”

Alec takes her out of the shark costume, then Ellie pulls on the bumblebee costume.

“Oh good lord,” Alec gasps. “Too much.”

“I know.”

Aila sits up this time, blinking at her parents curiously. Her antennas flop around and she starts reaching for them, to no avail.

“Oh god, quick take a photo before she loses her _mind_ ,” Ellie demands.

Alec takes a few photos but Aila won’t sit still, frantically grasping for the little felt balls at the end of the antennas.

“Gonna take a video,” he says.

“Aila,” Ellie coos at her. “Aila, look at Daddy, sweetheart.”

Aila just looks at Ellie.

“Over here, darlin’,” Alec says, waving his hands.

“Mummumumumumum.”

Then she flops over backwards, having twisted herself too precariously in trying to reach the antennas.

“All right, that’s that.” Alec drops his mobile on the bed. “And now for the piece de resistance.”

“Oh for god’s sake.” Ellie rolls her eyes.

Together they change her out of the bumblebee costume and into the pumpkin. This time, Aila is a bit less agreeable, having now grown quite weary of this peculiar game her parents are playing. She’s whining halfheartedly by the time they finish getting her into the pumpkin costume.

“Don’t forget the hat,” Ellie reminds him, nodding at the top of the pumpkin, which also includes the stem.

Alec seems hesitant, but then grabs it and puts it on her. Aila immediately reaches for the elastic band at her and tries to pull at it, frowning deeply.

She looks at her father for help, pitifully, and whines, “ _Dada dada._ ”

Ellie laughs out loud, then covers her mouth.

“Daddy can’t save you _now_ , little girl,” she says. “Daddy is the one _insisting_ you be his wee pumpkin.”

Alec places his hand on his hips and sighs. “Be a lot cuter if she wasn’t cryin’.”

Ellie grabs her pacifier, clips it on to the pumpkin suit, then pops it into Aila’s mouth. Her tears subside and she sits contently. Ellie deftly wipes away the tears.

“There we are. Take a photo.”

*

After Alec changes into his Gomez Addams suit, he stares at himself in Ellie’s full-length mirror.

“Put the mustache on,” she calls from the loo. “Just do it.”

“Look ridiculous with the beard,” he mutters.

“Do it anyway.”

He complies. And before he can be dismayed by his reflection in the mirror, Ellie walks in from the loo in her Morticia Addams costume. A long, tight, dark purple dress with the deepest V-neck he’s ever seen in his life.

His jaw drops. “……Sorry, I thought we were meant to be trick-or-treating,” he gasps out. “This…I can’t let you out of the bedroom in that.”

Ellie blushes and rolls her eyes at the same time. “You’ll manage.” She walks over and adjusts his mustache. “We need to slick your hair a bit.”

His eyes widen. “What.”

“Come on, come with me.” She drags him into the loo.

*

David is dressed up like Fester. His girlfriend, Sally, is dressed up like Grandma. And then Lucy arrives. Dressed as Wednesday.

“Oh good god, Luce,” Ellie exclaims.

“What?”

“You’re a fifty-year-old woman!”

“Bite your tongue!” Lucy snaps back.

Meanwhile, Alec gestures at David and Sally.

“Isn’t that a bit weird? Isn’t she Fester’s mum?”

David frowns. “I thought she was Morticia’s mum.”

They all pause, tilting their heads as they consider this. Then Fred and Ryan come bursting in.

“TIME TO GO.”

David leans down and scoops up Aila from the floor.

Ellie frowns with concern. “Dad, should you be doing that?”

“Picking up my granddaughter? Yeah, think I bloody well should.”

“He’s all right,” Sally says, patting David’s arm. “Cleared by the doctors for all manner of activities.”

Lucy and Ellie immediately exchange disgusted glances. Fred just yanking at Alec’s suit jacket.

“Come on come on come on come on.”

“Already had too much sugar, I see,” Lucy snarks.

“As a matter of fact he’s had _none_ ,” Ellie replies haughtily.

“Uh huh.”

*

Ryan and Fred scurry from house to house with more energy than Ellie and Alec can imagine ever having in their lives. David pushes Aila’s buggy, while Aila’s parents walk behind them arm in arm. Aila’s eyes are wide and dancing, taking in all the lights and chaos around her. She leans forward and sits up straight, bouncing excitedly. But every once in a while there’s a slightly terrifying monster that causes her to lean back and hide her face. Whenever that happens, she calls out, “ _A_ -da-da,” and Alec steps forward and squeezes her hand until she smiles and forgets all about it.

“That wig is….” Alec turns to Ellie. “You’re keepin’ that, right?”

“If you’re good.”

He slides a hand down to her arse. She jumps a bit.

“That’s not you being good.”

“’s me bein’ utterly _helpless_.”

Then Aila starts calling for him again.

“Just pick her up, will you?” Ellie suggests.

They stop walking and Alec extricates Aila from her buggy and scoops her up.

“All right, there we are, my wee pumpkin.”

“Hurry up!” Fred shouts as he and Ryan run to the next house.

Aila looks at her father pleadingly as she pulls at her hat. He sighs.

“Oh, all right.” He takes it off her and tosses it into the buggy.

“Pushover,” Ellie scoffs.

Aila smiles and lays her head on Alec’s shoulder. He pats her back.

“There’s my good lass,” he says softly. “My wee pumpkin.”

Aila holds tightly to his lapel and yawns.

“Oh, dear,” Ellie says. “We’re gonna lose her.”

But then Fred shouts and she perks up again, albeit with some annoyance.

*

By the time they return home, the baby pumpkin is fast asleep on Gomez Addams’ chest. Ellie loads the boys into her car to go drop Ryan off. It takes Alec _ages_ to get Aila ready for bed, trying his damndest not to wake her as he changes her out of her pumpkin costume and into her pyjamas.

When all the children are finally asleep – and Tom off at his party – Alec and Ellie sit together on the sofa with two glasses of wine, their feet propped up on the coffee table.

“Christ I’m knackered,” Ellie says with a yawn. “Hardly nine o’clock.”

“Mm.” He slides an arm around her and pulls her close. “Parentin’ is serious business.”

“Mm- _hmm_ ,” she agrees with another yawn. Then she looks up at him with a sly smile and slowly pulls off his sticky mustache. “There we go.”

He glances down at her incredulously. She responds simply by planting a kiss on his lips.

Then she lays her head on his shoulder again. “Fred was lovely tonight, wasn’t he,” she says. “Proudly wearing his Wonder Woman costume. Entirely unconcerned with gender norms and such.”

“Kids today are amazin’ that way,” Alec observes. “They’re growin’ up so much freer than we did. Everythin’ is fluid for them.”

“Very happy for our kids to grow up in that world.”

He nods. “Me too.” He throws back the rest of his wine then sets his glass down. “Can’t decide whether I want you _in_ that costume or out of it…” He slides his hand across her chest and into her v-neck, only to be abruptly stopped by something.

Ellie laughs out loud. “It’s tape.”

“What?”

“I’m taped in.” She reaches in to dislodge the dress tape from her breasts. “You didn’t think these were just staying in there naturally, did you?”

He blinks at her. “Did seem unlikely. Given the, um.”

“ _Size_ of them, yes, you can say it,” Ellie retorts. “No chance in hell Morticia Addams ever breastfed her children, I’m telling you.”

With the tape removed, Alec tries again, slipping his hand in to cup her breast. As he kneads it with great reverence and concentration, Ellie looks up at him with a loving smile.

“You really did have a nice time today, didn’t you.”

“Mm.” He leans down and kisses her. “I’ve no complaints about domestic life.” His lips move down to her neck. “None at all.”

“Do you know what I’d _really_ love to do right now?”

He growls a bit in her ear. “What’s that.”

“Look at all the photos again,” she announces. “Get out your mobile.”

***


End file.
